A fish farm worker who assaulted his daughter and threatened to kill a man as he battered him with a hockey stick managed to avoid jail at Lerwick Sheriff Court this week.

Alan Devine, 46, of Undirhoul, Scalloway, was put on probation for 18 months, ordered to do 140 hours of voluntary work and has been restricted in when he can leave his house for the next two months. He was also ordered to pay his male victim £750 compensation. The court heard he would have to pay back his daughter with remorse for the rest of his life.

Devine had previously admitted the attacks which happened in Scalloway’s Main Street on 19th September last year after he claimed to have drunk around 20 pints and 12 nips, which he did not consider an abnormally large amount. Sheriff Graeme Napier, who regularly condemns the level of drinking accepted in Shetland, said Devine’s attitude was bizarre and that the consumption equated to around 50 units of alcohol. “How can anyone think that is normal – even in Shetland terms?”

Councillor Jonathan Wills appeared before the Standards Commission on Wednesday. Click on image to enlarge.

Jonathan Wills has accused the five people who referred him to the Standards Commission for an alleged breach of the councillors’ Code of Conduct of spending more than £3,000 of public money on preparing the complaint without the authority of the council.

Dr Wills spoke out prior to his appearance before two members of the commission in Lerwick on Wednesday morning.

The 90-minute hearing took place almost five months after the complaint was made by council convener Sandy Cluness, vice-convener Josie Simpson, former chief executive David Clark, deputy chief executive Hazel Sutherland and head of legal Jan Riise.

They reported Dr Wills to the commission after he refused to accept the outcome of an investigation, led by an expert from Cosla, into his claims that Mr Clark threatened him with violence in a telephone call on 9th September last year.

An elderly woman in Lerwick thought that the stranger who appeared in her house on Monday was her new home help.

But Samantha Chapman, 24, of Rudda Court, Lerwick, was a drug addict about to prey on her vulnerable neighbour by stealing her purse. Before making off with £175 from the pensioner to buy heroin and settle a debt she tried to cover up her crime by kissing her 78-year-old victim.

Appearing in handcuffs at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday, Chapman was refused bail and remanded in custody for a fortnight to await sentencing. Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said her victim, who has poor eyesight, might not be able to continue living on her own now as a result of the blow to her confidence from the heroin addict’s crime.

A long-time drug user was given the chance to avoid another jail sentence on Wednesday for being involved in supplying heroin.

Pupils at the Anderson High School in Lerwick have really felt the earth move, after joining the UK Schools Seismology Project last September and having a seismometer running in the school.