Court / Court round-up 9 July

A WOMAN who punched and threatened her ex-husband’s new partner has had her sentence deferred to be of good behaviour.

Ellen Martin, 52, shouted and swore at her son, her ex-husband and his new wife at Mareel on 14 June after they found themselves sitting a row apart at the cinema.

Martin, from Brae, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and assaulting the woman by seizing hold of her and punching her on the body.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Martin and her ex-partner had been married for 21 years, but were divorced in 2016.

At around 5.30pm on 14 June the two complainers and the teenage boy arrived at Mareel to see a film, and saw Martin sitting outside the screening room.

They entered the cinema and found that, by chance, Martin was sitting directly in front of her ex-husband and his partner.

She began shouting abuse and swearing at them, witnessed by their son, causing them to get up to leave.

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Martin called the woman derogatory terms and threatened that she was “going to get her”.

“She grabbed hold of her clothing and punched her on the arm,” Mackenzie said.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client had not spoken to her son in two years, which she had found “extremely difficult to cope with”, adding it had been “heartbreaking”.

Given they had not spoken in so long, it was “perhaps understandable” that their conversation at Mareel had not gone well, Allan said.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank decided to defer sentence on Martin for four months for her to be of good behaviour.

A KALLINESS man who threatened his neighbour with a “metal implement” during a dispute over a cat has been fined.

Nathan Robertson, 28, had also admitted to punching out the rear window of the complainer’s van during the dispute outside his home on 14 February 2025.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said previously there was an ongoing neighbourly dispute between the two men.

The complainer had returned home to feed his cats and was told by his partner that one was at Robertson’s house, and that she wanted it back.

After “words were exchanged” on Robertson’s door step between the two men a fight broke out, which led Robertson to go inside and get a “pointed metal implement”.

Mobile phone footage captured part of the incident, and showed Robertson “clearly” approaching the man carrying and brandishing it “in the manner that one would carry a weapon”, Mackenzie said.

Robertson’s partner took it off him, but that did not stop him from then punching the rear window out of the man’s van.

Defence agent Liam McAllister said a social work report produced on Robertson was “generally positive”, and said his client was someone whose “focus is his family”.

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The fight had come after “years of tension and frustration” in the neighbourly dispute.

However Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told Robertson this was “not the way to resolve neighbour disputes” and fined him £500.

A DATE has been set for a jury trial later this year after a 36-year-old man pleaded not guilty to four charges.

Adam Nelson, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, appeared via video-link on Wednesday to deny the charges against him.

Nelson is charged with assaulting two women, threatening or abusive behaviour and theft on 6 and 7 March this year.

The incidents occurred at an address in Lerwick, and then in the back of the police van and at Lerwick Police Station.

The jury trial was set for the week beginning 24 November 2025.

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A WARRANT was issued to arrest a 37-year-old woman who failed to show up for court because she said she had the flu.

Kayleigh Cassidy, of Lerwick’s Hill Grind, was not at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday after texting solicitor Tommy Allan in the morning to say she was too ill to attend.

However Cassidy also failed to appear early last month, leading to a warrant being issued then for her arrest.

She attended court last week, with Allan asking for the case to be continued for a week so that he could take detailed instructions from Cassidy.

Allan told the court on Wednesday that Cassidy had texted him at 7.50am to say she her bones and teeth were aching, her head was pounding and she could not stop coughing for any length of time.

He admitted that the court’s “patience may be wearing thin” with his client.

And so it proved, with procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie requesting a warrant for her arrest to be issued – which Sheriff Ian Cruickshank agreed to grant.