A rapist River City actor and a paedophile who desperately tried to change his name are among the depraved criminals brought to justice this week.
Also locked up was a calculated creep who stalked his teenage victim through the streets of Edinburgh before abducting her at knifepoint and dragging her to a basement where he carried out a “bestial” sex attack.
An abuse thug who deliberately torched a block of flats, leaving his former partner and her five-year-old child trapped inside, was also caged.
And in drugs crime, a gangster carwash owner who saw his drug-trafficking operation collapse after being caught out by his bathroom floor tiles was jailed for three years.
Here are the worst criminals jailed this week in Scotland.
A “calculated” domestic abuser was caged on Tuesday after deliberately torching a block of flats leaving his former partner and her five-year-old child trapped inside.
In shocking CCTV footage, Craig Higgs was walking towards Bellfield Court in Musselburgh while looking down at his mobile phone, just minutes before the blaze broke out on April 20, 2022, which also left several other residents unable to escape. Images released by prosecutors show the horrifying aftermath, with the communal stairwell blackened by soot and smoke damage after the inferno.
View 7 ImagesThe scene in Musselburgh(Image: Crown Office)
Another picture shows the barbecue that was deliberately set alight, while a picture taken outside the flats shows a police cordon surrounding the scene. The fire left Higgs’ former partner and her young child trapped inside their home as thick smoke rapidly spread through the building, placing their lives at risk.
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used an enforcer and an axe to smash their way into the property and rescue the mother and child. Higgs was convicted of wilful fire-raising, endangering the lives of his former partner, the child and other residents. He had previously admitted two charges of threatening or abusive behaviour.
The 37-year-old was jailed for seven years at the High Court in Edinburgh. A judge also imposed an indefinite non-harassment order banning him from contacting or attempting to contact his former partner.
Former River City actor Iain Robertson was jailed for nine years for raping a woman and assaulting two others. The shamed 45-year-old, who played Stevie O’Hara in the BBC soap, was convicted of five offences, including domestic abuse, against the women between 2004 and 2019.
During the trial he was referred to by witnesses as “violent” and “controlling”. Robertson, whose contract with the Glasgow-based drama ended in the months before he was arrested, raped one of the women some time between 2018 and 2019, and also sexually assaulted her on a separate occasion.
View 7 ImagesIain Robertson as Stevie O’Hara in an episode of River City(Image: BBC)
At Edinburgh High Court on Thursday, judge Lady Drummond sentenced him to nine years in prison, plus an additional three-year supervision period. He was also added to the sex offenders’ register indefinitely, and made subject to indefinite non-harassment orders. Robertson appeared via video link from Barlinnie prison to be sentenced by Lady Drummond. Dressed in a blue top, he showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down.
Prosecutors from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) told the court that he subjected victims to violence, threats and aggression.
He poured a bottle of wine over the head of one woman. He raped another during a campaign of coercive and controlling behaviour. The pair had got to know each other from working together on River City. The 36-year-old woman said she did not want anything sexual to happen, but believed Robertson, of Carbeth, Stirlingshire, did. It did, however, later become more intimate between them.
But, the woman recalled later insisting to Robertson she wanted their relationship to go back to being more platonic. Asked by prosecutor John Keenan KC how Robertson reacted, she said he “agreed”. She added: “It was a long back and forth. Iain was convinced I was in denial about having feelings for him and in denial about what I wanted. I do not think he believed me.”
A masked rapist who abducted a 15-year-old girl from an Edinburgh city centre bus stop before raping her in a basement was jailed under a lifelong restriction order.
Aaron Strachan, 21, pulled a knife on the girl on the city’s Princes Street in May last year, before marching her to a basement storage area and attacking her. He was caged at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday.
View 7 ImagesRapist Aaron Strachan(Image: Police Scotland)
The indefinite sentence means he will serve at least five years behind bars before he can even be considered for parole – and he may never be released due to the danger he poses to the public. The court heard the victim had been waiting at a bus stop in Edinburgh city centre when Strachan, wearing a balaclava, approached her.
Feeling uneasy, the schoolgirl walked away towards Princes Street where more members of the public were gathered in the hope of finding safety. But CCTV showed Strachan continuing to follow her from a distance before suddenly running towards her as she sat at another bus stop.
View 7 ImagesAaron Strachan stalking his victim on Rose Street.(Image: Crown Office)
Brandishing a knife, he threatened to harm the teenager before grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her to the basement of a building on York Place. Once inside, Strachan blocked the door with wooden pallets to stop the terrified girl escaping before raping her. The attacker, who had never met his victim before, was identified after detectives recovered his DNA from the scene.
Police later spotted Strachan on Dalry Road on June 1. He tried to flee from officers but was found hiding in nearby shrubbery and arrested.
Strachan admitted the rape at the High Court in December last year. He also pleaded guilty to repeatedly stabbing a man in the hand during an unprovoked knife attack just hours before the rape, causing severe injury.
A convicted paedophile who changed his name and became president of the Robert Burns World Federation was jailed for five years after more victims of his historical abuse came forward.
Marc Sherland, now 70, was found guilty in May of indecently assaulting three teenage boys at his Paisley home between 1988 and 1990.
He was originally convicted in 1991 of abusing two boys aged eight and 10 when he worked as a council youth worker in Renfrew. Following his earlier conviction, he disguised his past as a sex offender by changing his name, before going on to become a cultural ambassador for Burns’ poetry and the Scots language.
View 7 ImagesMarc Sherland(Image: Jamie Williamson)
Under the new guise, he went on to be the president of the Robert Burns World Federation – a literary society that also does outreach work with children – before leaving in December 2023. Sentencing him at Paisley Sheriff Court on Thursday, Sheriff Gillian Craig said a five-year prison sentence would be followed by three years of supervision after his release.
She also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which prohibits him from having any contact with children for a period of 20 years.
One survivor, who was abused by Sherland, said: “What happened to me is something I’ve been forced to live with, and battle with, my whole life. It has moulded everything about me from my attitude, personality and the way I’m able to interact with people and the world around me.”
A gangster carwash owner who saw his drug-trafficking operation collapse after being caught out by his bathroom floor tiles was jailed for three years.
Police linked the tiles to pictures sent on the encrypted messaging platform EncroChat by Klodian Ferizolli, of Glasgow.
The 32-year-old was found guilty of supplying and selling cocaine and cannabis worth thousands of pounds using the messaging app favoured by criminals. Ferizolli’s illicit activities were revealed during a Police Scotland investigation into a Glasgow-based Albanian serious organised crime group.
Controlled drugs were trafficked throughout central Scotland in the scheme. Ferizolli used EncroChat almost daily under a specific handle to set up drug deals with associates.
View 7 ImagesKlodian Ferzolli(Image: Mike Gibbons/Spindrift)
In one conversation, Ferizolli discussed a property where a cannabis factory could be set up to grow 10kg of the drug. Another discussion included lists and figures totalling £355,350 which was owed to Ferizolli, who also confirmed he had received £239,680.
He also sent a picture of a white powder referred to as “Columbiana” and offered to supply cocaine for £39,000 per kilo. His scheme unravelled when police linked the handle to Ferizolli through an image sent by him on EncroChat which matched the pattern of the bathroom floor tiles at his home.
Ferizolli was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday.
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