APPEAL COURT, HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY |
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Lord Macfadyen E. F. Bowen, Q.C.
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Appeal No: XJ401/03 OPINION OF THE COURT delivered by LORD MACFADYEN in APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE by DAVID EDWARD BROWN Appellant; against PROCURATOR FISCAL, Inverness Respondent: _______ |
Appellant: Brown, Advocate; Craig Wood, Inverness
Respondent:
Ms. Hughes, A.D.; Crown Agent21 January 2004
[1] The appellant, David Edward Brown, pled guilty at Inverness Sheriff Court on 20 January 2003 to a charge of contravening section 50A(1)(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995. That section provides that a person is guilty of an offence if he "acts in a manner which is racially aggravated and which causes, or is intended to cause, a person alarm or distress". The charge to which the appellant pled guilty was in the following terms:"on 24 January 2002 at Burnett Road Police Station, Inverness you ... did act in a racially aggravated manner which caused and was intended to cause alarm and distress to a person, namely Shahid Maqsood, Constable, Northern Constabulary, Inverness in respect that you repeatedly made racial remarks".
"... a police officer, on duty at a police station, who is the subject of such abuse at the hands of a drunk man is not meritorious of a compensation order".
"... where a person is convicted of an offence the court, instead of or in addition to dealing with him in any other way, may make an order (in this Part of this Act referred to as "a compensation order") requiring him to pay compensation for any personal injury, loss or damage caused, whether directly or indirectly, by the acts which constituted the offence."