A knife attacker left a delivery driver with his insides “hanging out” during an attempted murder outside a Stockbridge shop.
Aaron Gray, 23, left Mark Miller, 26, bleeding heavily from wounds following the assault near Pizza Hut in Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, on 3 April.
Surgeons carried out an emergency operation on Mr Miller to repair his injured bowel and blood vessels.
Blood on the ground in Stockbridge following the attack. (Pic: Thomas Brown)
The judge deferred sentence on Gray until January for background reports.
Gray admitted attempting to murder Mr Miller.
He had changed his plea during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Mr Miller, a hospital worker who also worked as a delivery driver for the restaurant chain, said he was heading back to the outlet when he became aware of a male shouting, whom he did not know.
He said he had ignored him and the man left the scene in a car, but returned minutes later and emerged from a passenger door.
Mr Miller said: “He came running towards me. It happened that quick,” he said before the pair got involved in “a scuffle”.
He said: “I managed to get up on to my feet. I was still holding on to him. Then I just let go of him. Then I put my hand down on to my stomach and I realised I had been stabbed. My insides were hanging out.”
Police speak to locals following stabbing in Stockbridge. (Pic: Thomas Brown)
Advocate depute Graeme Jessop said Gray claimed he knew Mr Miller which the victim denied.
Mr Jessop said the surgeon was of the opinion that the injuries were actually life-threatening if it was not for the immediate medical intervention.
Police made attempts to trace Gray at several addresses following the attack, before he later handed himself in at a police station.
The victim suffered anxiety and depression following the assault. He said he now finds it very difficult to go out on his own and remains off work following the attack on him, the court heard.
Funding has been awarded by The City of Edinburgh Council to enable Places for People, on behalf of Castle Rock Edinvar, to complete their development at West Pilton, just off the Granton Access Road. With the start on site being planned for Spring 2012 the build period is likely to be around 18 months, and the first homes should be available in Spring 2013.
Places for People
Alister Steele, Managing Director at Castle Rock Edinvar, said “We are delighted that with the funding now in place we can complete this site. It has been a long process as a result of issues with access coupled with changes to economic conditions, leading to the need to revise our plans. The City of Edinburgh Council has worked closely with us to help us to find solutions”.
The proposals comprise 93 units, a mixture of houses and flats. There will be a mix of tenures, social rented homes, mid-market rented homes and low cost home ownership. The design of the new buildings will be similar to that of Castle Rock Edinvar’s adjacent development to ensure the two developments complement each other with a few changes such as the replacement of the timber cladding with a different finish which looks similar and a buff coloured brick finish instead of white render.
The new development will have secure back court areas, with drying greens, children’s play areas and seating, as well as careful lighting to enhance security. There will be trees between the development and Granton Access Road. Private gardens will be provided to the front and back of most ground floor properties, with the majority of front gardens to be provided with low maintenance durable planting and clearly laid out public and private spaces.
For further information, please contact Diana Harries, Development Manager, Places for People Developments (diana.harries@placesforpeople.co.uk, Tel 559 2200) with any queries regarding the development.
Last month saw the Show Racism the Red Card fortnight of action come to Spartans Academy and local people were able to take part in a multicultural football event organised by Spartans.
Kenny Cameron is joined by Jordan at Spartans for the Show Racism the Red Card event.
After the event Kenny said “We have sixty young people from the local area come along and take part, after the games the young people will be treated to some food from around the world, so its not just about the football. Today was an opportunity for young people from North Edinburgh to meet up and take part in the beautiful game. Spartans sees itself as a fabric of the North Edinburgh area and these events strengthen our relationships with young people and other service providers. Events like tonight can only be a good thing and will help make a positive contribution to the local community.”
To find out more about what goes on at Spartans give them a call on 552 7854.
Cancer Research fashion night. (Picture: Carrie Lennon)
The cancer Research shop in Stockbridge hosted a fashion night last month at the Edinburgh Academy. This is the third year that shop manager Carrie Lennon has organised the event and after excellent evening was over Carrie said
“We raised £2600 on the night showcasing charity chic at our Charity Catwalk. The models were friends, family, volunteers and regular customers and they showed off top brands including Versace and Dolce and Gabanna. All of the clothes were items that had been donated to the Stockbridge branch by the public, and were all for sale after the show. We wanted to show off the amazing things that we get regularly donated to our store and show just how fashion forward you can be while supporting a worthy cause.”
A large number of people turned out for the Cancer Research fashion night. (Picture: Carrie Lennon)
“This is the third time that myself and key volunteers at the Stockbridge branch have hosted this fashion night, and this year our grand total was £500 more than last years”!
This year we have busy programme of activities over the festive season. Everyone is invited to come and share the celebration with us…
Saturday 10th December at 6.30pm
The Muirhouse Christmas Show—fun and entertainment from our choir, our youngsters, and a good few grown ups who still know how to have a laugh.
Saturday 17th December 10am-12noon
Nativity Cocoa Morning – A coffee morning with a difference – as well as the usual tea, coffee and eats there will be winter warming hot chocolate AND a host of nativity sets on display.
Sunday 18th December at 11am
4th Sunday in Advent – Family Service with our Children’s Nativity Play
Sunday 18th December at 3pm
Blue Christmas Service—a quieter reflective service for those who struggle with all the merriment of Christmas because life for them is hard, lonely or sad.
Christmas Eve Watchnight Service at 8.00pm
Christingle Service—a magical service for all ages as we prepare to celebrate Christmas
Granton Information Centre has received the prestigious Scottish National Standards certificate for the quality of their information and advice provision at a reception at the City Chambers.
GIC is the first Edinburgh organisation – and one of only a few advice agencies in Scotland – to achieve the award at this level, and their certificate was presented by Sheriff Principal Edward T Bowen QC.
The certificate presentation was the centrepiece of an event organised to celebrate the success of EHAP (Edinburgh Housing Advice Partnership), a consortium set up to provide housing advice services across the city in a contract with the city council. The consortium partners – Granton Information Centre, Community Health and Information (CHAI), Move On and FourSquare – offer a comprehensive range of housing advice services to the people of Edinburgh. EHAP provides a prison outreach project, a schools peer education service for S4 and S5 school leavers, housing advice in local neighbourhood settings and also provides representation at court – both for pre-prepared cases and also through an ‘emergency first aid’ service for people who turn up at court without representation. The EHAP event offered an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved so far and to look ahead to future challenges.
Frances Durie and the staff team of Granton Information Centre receive their award. (Pic: Dave Pickering)
Welcoming delegates, Councillor Paul Edie (Chair of the Health, Social Care and Housing Committee) said: “Homelessness is something I’m very passionate about and I’m very proud of this council’s record. In Scotland, we have an obligation to eradicating unintentional homelessness by 2012 – not something that applies south of the border – and I think that’s a sign of what a progressive country Scotland is and how our social conscience reflects on public policy”.
He went on: “This council has a very radical strategy to tackle homelessness, developed in partnership with our colleagues in the voluntary sector and rolled out over the last couple of years. Critical to that strategy has been the provision of good quality ‘right first time’ housing advice to our service users. I’m really proud that last year homelessness dropped by 13% in Edinburgh, and EHAP are very important players in that strategy. No less than 99% of people who have used EHAP have not subsequently gone on to present themselves as homeless – that’s a jaw-dropping statistic; in any walk of life if you get that level of satisfaction rating you’d be entirely happy. I’d like to thank our EHAP partners for the great work they are doing to stop people losing their homes – a terrible thing to happen to anyone – and I wish you every success in the year ahead”.
One of Sherriff Principal Bowen’s responsibilities is to ensure ‘the efficient dispersal of Sherriff Court business’ and he explained that, while criminal cases take up the bulk of time at the court, civil business – including housing cases dealing with evictions and repossessions – take up a considerable amount of court time. He said that many of these cases could and should be resolved before they ever reached court, but added that there was also a need for suitable advice provision when cases did come to court.
“A recent review found that there is a need for proper advice – there remains a significant unmet need – and the EHAP service is critical to providing assistance prior to cases coming before the court system; providing there is a proper input by way of advice at an early stage, housing disputes can be resolved. The court needs to have confidence that suitable advice is available, so the service that EHAP provides is critical to the function of Edinburgh Sherriff Court. That’s demonstrated by the figures EHAP has provided for 2010 -11. We are indebted to all those involved in providing the EHAP service, which is widely acknowledged to be highly effective, and it gives me great pleasure to recognise that expertise by the presentation of these certificates today”.
Frances Durie, vice-chairperson of Granton Information Centre, received the award on the project’s behalf. She said: “This is a really tremendous achievement and a great honour for Granton Information Centre. Our staff have worked very hard over a long period to achieve the levels of professionalism that they have, and it’s good that this effort has been rewarded. We’ve always known that people coming to Granton Information Centre will get the highest standard of independent advice available anywhere, but it’s nice to receive wider recognition for the quality of our advice work”.
Granton Information Centre (GIC) provides free, impartial and confidential advice and assistance on a range of issues including welfare benefits, housing advice, tax credits and debt. If you would benefit from any advice you can visit them at their surgeries as per the details below.
Drop in sessions (Granton Information Centre):
Monday & Wednesday: All HOUSING issues: 9.30 – 12.30
Craigroyston Community High School is now the proud owner of a swim team, the Craigroyston Dolphins! This is supported by Active Schools. The team is open to P7 to S6 pupils, who can swim 2 lengths’ of the pool without float aids. Team members get trained on their swimming technique and then can compete at Edinburgh events if they choose to.
The Dolphins swim team showing of their new kit courtesy of Scottish Gas (pic: Ricky Karoyan)
Our team has just competed at the Edinburgh and Midlothian Schools Championship which took place On Sunday 20th November at Ainslie Park Leisure Centre.
Active Schools Coordinator Ricky Karoyan said, “I was very impressed by the participants positive attitude and performance. They ALL beat their personal best times too which is a fantastic achievement.”
“The team was commented upon by other club coaches about how smart they looked in their team kit and how well they behaved and supported each other. Clubs also commented on how nice it was to have another public school entered in the competition (in a very private school dominated event). Craigroyston Dolphins were faced with tough competition from teams who are more established and experienced, but it didn’t stop them enjoying the day and proving their worth.”
The new Dolphins swim team are now ready for action. (pic: Ricky Karoyan)
Karoyan added “One of our team members finished 13th overall in her age group, was 5th in the 100 freestyle and 6thin the 200 butterfly. Our swim team is kindly being sponsored by Scottish Gas who has provided each Craigroyston Dolphin a kit bag, team T-shirt, goggles and other exciting things to use during competitions.”
The training sessions take place every Thursday (term time) 3.30 – 4.30pm at the High School. To find out more or to get involved call Ricky on 07825386846
Life at PYCP has been as busy as ever and Senior Project Worker Laura McLaren told us “We had a packed 5 week summer programme for children and young people aged 5-18. We chose a different theme each week; “discovery week”, “residential week”, “art attack”, “move it week” and “fun week”. This included building based activities such as mask making, drumming, zumba, circus skills and an “It’s a Knockout” competition.”
Young people enjoy taking a rest whilst on a trip. (pic: PYCP)
The local project also organised a range of trips, to places such as Almond Valley, the cinema at Ocean Terminal and “World of Soccer”, as well as residentials to the Innerwick Centre at Dunbar and Loch Tay. PYCP also worked with a range of other agencies such as Pilton Equalities Project, where they helped with gardening and provided a series of events as part of the Play Practitioners Forum, where children from other agencies came to participate in arts and crafts and basketball. Theyalso had several teams in the over 12’s area wide treasure hunt, “The Quest”.
Children enjoy taking part in Circus Skills. (Pic: PYCP)
Laura continued “Our open access programme continues to engage high numbers of young people, with 22 different clubs and groups a week. We have had some exciting new developments in our term time programme, with a new project called “Positive Pathways” that aims to support young people into volunteering opportunities, particularly within PYCP. We also have a new group work programme funded by the Cattanach Trust, where pupils from Forthview Primary School are referred for additional support. We have also built upon our sexual health and relationship programme of support and are now offering tailored sessions to local agencies. This initiative began with a very successful project with young mums at Stepping Stones.”
Face painting is also very popular at PYCP (pic: PYCP)
“As well as raising funds for specific projects, we continue to organise one off sponsored and community events. In July, Mark Hunter who is one of our Youth and Children’s Workers, along with his Friends Dave Girvan and Mark Roper, completed a gruelling 142 mile sponsored cycle from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. A total of £1200.00 was raised, with all proceeds going to activities for service users of PYCP. We also raised £200.00 collecting before and after the match at a Hibs game in September.”
The next fundraising event is a Christmas Fair, on Friday 9th December from 12-2.00pm, where there will be a craft stall, a home baking stall, a raffle and a café. We are also holding a competition for children and young people at PYCP to design a Christmas card and the winning entries will be printed and on sale at the Fair. We hope to see you there”
For more information on the vast services available at PYCP give them a call on 332 9815.
Local community campaign group North Edinburgh Fights Back is to hold a community conference at Craigroyston High School on Saturday (12 November). The conference – ‘Tackling Poverty and Inequality’ – has been jointly organised with the STUC and Edinburgh Trades Union Congress and aims to create an Anti-Poverty Charter.
The conference programme includes keynote speakers and workshops and over one hundred delegates from across the country are expected to attend the event.
North Edinburgh Fights Back member Willie Black said: “This is an important conference and it has generated a lot of interest, both locally and further afield. We want to see communities, community organisations and Trade Unions join together to resist and fight the scourge of poverty which is decimating our communities – communities that are already struggling to cope with the punishing effects of government cuts”.
The conference, which starts at 10am, is a free event but participatants are advised to book their place as demand is likely to be high. For further information on the ‘Tackling Poverty and Inequality’ community conference contact Willie Black on 0751 568 6421 or email w.black@blueyonder.co.uk
