Police in Edinburgh are appealing for information following a reported serious assault which took place in the Forth Street area.
The incident took place around 9.50pm on Monday, 7 June, when a 67-year-old man was struck in the face and suffered serious injuries as a result.
The suspect is male, aged between 30 and 40, 5ft 6 with a stocky build and unshaven face. He was wearing a dark beanie hat, hooded jumper, coat and baggy trousers.
Detective Constable Christina Yeoman, of Gayfield CID, said: “This appears to have been a shockingly unprovoked and random attack, which left the victim with multiple serious injuries.
“We’re asking for anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information to please come forward. If you believe you could help our enquiries, call 101 quoting reference 4086 of 7 June. Alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, if you wish to remain anonymous.”
At round 6.30pm on Monday (7 June), Police Scotland Officers acting on intelligence stopped a Volkswagen van on the A720, Edinburgh city bypass at Old Craighall.
During a search of the vehicle, officers recovered a large quantity of heroin and cocaine as well as mixing/bulking agents.
The drugs have an estimated combined street value of £73,000. A 47-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the recovery and is due to appear before Edinburgh Sheriff Court today (Wednesday 9 June).
A full report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.
Specialist detectives in Edinburgh have acknowledged the conviction of Craig Dunsmore for a number of sexual offences, including rape. The 27-year-old has been found guilty following a trial at the High Court.
Dunsmore (above) was convicted of a raping a woman in Edinburgh in January 2019. He was also found guilty of online offences involving indecent communications and possessing indecent images of children.
Detective Inspector George Calder of the Edinburgh City Divisional Rape Investigation Unit said: “Craig Dunsmore is a dangerous individual whose actions were motivated purely to satisfy his own depraved sexual gratification.
“The bravery of the females involved in initially coming forward then subsequently throughout the police investigation and legal proceedings is to be commended and will now mean he faces the consequences of his behaviour.
“We are committed to bringing all perpetrators of sexual abuse to justice and I would urge anyone who wishes to report sexual crime, either direct to police or through a third sector agency, regardless of when it happened.”
Dunsmore will return to court for sentencing at a later date.
Hundreds of children have been safeguarded by police enforcement as reports of online child sexual abuse increased during the last year, information released today by Police Scotland shows.
Police Scotland’s 2020-21 Quarter 4 Performance Report and Management Information showed there were a total of 1,966 child sexual abuse crimes recorded during the year, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year (1,857) and 24.9% greater than the five year average of 1,574.
The Performance Report outlines the safeguarding of 434 children through the enforcement of 649 National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) packages between September 2020 and March this year.
NOCAP packages provide intelligence and evidence which underpins investigations carried out to identify and arrest online child abusers.
Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor said: “The rise in reports online child sexual abuse has continued and accelerated during this period, and the Performance Report draws attention to vital work to safeguard hundreds of children through the enforcement of National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) packages.
“Online child sexual abuse is a national threat and tackling it is a priority for Police Scotland. The implementation of our Cyber Strategy will ensure we continue to build capacity and capability to keep people safe in the virtual space.”
The reports also provide an insight into the effect of coronavirus restrictions on the policing needs and requirements of communities during 2020-21.
Crime reports fell overall, with 6,361 fewer violent crimes reported compared to the previous year, a decrease of 10% while there were also 55 fewer road fatalities, decreasing 33% from 165 to 110.
Acquisitive crime, such as housebreakings and shoplifting, fell by 18% year on year (from 109,460 to 89,731).
Detection rates increased in a number of crime categories where reported offences had decreased, including overall violent crime (up 3.3% points) and acquisitive crime (up 0.3% points).
However reported frauds increased by 38.2% from 10,875 in 2019-20 to 15,031 during the last year, up 78.1% on the five-year average of 8,439 reported crimes.
DCC Taylor said: “The reporting year 2020-21 was truly an exceptional period, covering from just a few days after the country first entered lockdown up until the beginning of April 2021.
“While it may be years before some of the changes to how people live their lives and to the nature of crime are fully understood, this information demonstrates the significant impact coronavirus restrictions have had on reported crime, detection rates and other policing requirements during this unique time.
“Overall violent crime reduced by around 10% year on year. Year on year increases of violent crime were reported during only the months of July and August, when restrictions had been eased.
“Acquisitive crime, such as shoplifting, also declined overall by almost a fifth compared to the year before and against the five-year average.
“The number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads is down about a third on the year before.”
“While this is to be welcomed, it is important to note reductions in reported crime did not occur in every category.
“As restrictions ease, we will continue to report on changes to the policing requirements of communities and the challenge of maintaining higher detection rates in the context of reported crime which is closer to pre-pandemic levels, as well increasing demand in areas such as fraud and online child abuse.”
An NSPCC Scotland spokesperson said: “These latest figures are further evidence of the increasing risk to children posed by child sexual offenders online.
“It is right and crucial that Police Scotland is tackling these crimes as a priority, through arresting suspects and working with partners to raise awareness of the issue. But it is clear we cannot continue with the status quo, where it’s left to law enforcement to tackle child abuse but social networks fail to do enough to proactively prevent and disrupt it from happening in the first place.
“The UK Government needs to deliver on its promise to put the protection of children front and centre of the Online Safety Bill, with tech firms being held to account if they fail in their duty of care.”
The 2020-21 Q4 Performance Report will be presented to the Scottish Police Authority’s Policing Performance Committee on Tuesday, 8 June.
Detectives are appealing for information following an attempted murder which occurred in the Fort Kinnaird area of Edinburgh on Thursday (3 June).
Around 5pm a group of four men were standing at Fort Kinnaird when they were approached by two men on a motorcycle.
A short chase took place and one of the men was stopped nearby on Whitehill Road, where the pillion passenger on the bike assaulted him with a bladed weapon.
The two suspects then made off along Whitehill Road.
The 31-year-old victim was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh with serious injuries, where he remains in a critical but stable condition.
The suspects are described as follows – driver dressed in all black clothing with a black helmet while the passenger was wearing a jacket with a red body and grey sleeves, with a dark cap and a snood/ dark face covering. They were travelling on a distinctive off road/trials/scrambler bike which was mainly blue in colour, with red and white livery.
Detective Inspector Clark Martin from Gayfield CID said: “We believe this incident was targeted towards the group of men standing at Fort Kinnaird and the victim has been left with extremely serious injuries.
“I am appealing for anyone who witnessed what happened, or noticed the suspects in the area, to please come forward.
“The motorcycle they were using was very distinctive and I would also urge anyone who thinks they may have seen it in the Edinburgh area on Thursday to pass this information on to the police.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland through 101, quoting incident number 2632 of Thursday, 3 June. Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
Road policing officers are appealing for information following a road traffic incident in Edinburgh yesterday (Thursday, 3 June 2021).
Around 5.25pm, police received a report a man had been struck by a car on Queensferry Road, Edinburgh near its junction with Parkgrove Road. Emergency services attended and the 33-year-old man was taken, by ambulance, to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for assessment. Medical staff describe his condition as stable.
The female driver of the car was uninjured.
The road was closed for several hours to allow for collision investigators to carry out enquiries.
Sergeant Jennifer Forbes said: “This was a busy time of evening with lots of people and several motorists in the area. I would appeal to them to contact us with any information they may have as it could assist our enquiries in establishing what has happened. In particular, anyone with a dash cam is asked to check it as it may have captured images which could aid our investigation.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Police Scotland via 101, quoting incident number 2696 of 3 June, 2021.
At the end of March the Council installed new numbered signs at Portobello Beach on top of the marker posts at the far end of the existing beach groyne structures.
A jointly produced information video of the signs is now being released as part of the projects continuing efforts.
The signs provide an immediate and visually prominent location reference, not just to members of the public but also to attending emergency services, lifeboats, coastguard rescue teams and search & rescue helicopters.
Numbered 1 to 6, these signs are plotted on all emergency service, call and mapping systems:
Marker 1 – Pipe Lane
Marker 2 – Bath Street
Marker 3 – Bellfield Street
Marker 4 – John Street
Marker 5 – Bedford Terrace
Marker 6 – End of promenade at Joppa Road.
Police will continue working with partners as the year continues at Portobello.
In a beach or coastal emergency, please dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard.
More than 1,000 assaults on officers and staff included coronavirus related context during 2020-21, according to latest analysis by Police Scotland.
The 1,087 reports were identified by searching cases for keywords relating to coronavirus such as ‘spit’, ‘cough’ and ‘Covid’.
The figure contributed to a total of 6,942 recorded assaults on officers and staff, 413 more than the year before, an increase of 6.3% year on year.
Reported assaults are also up 18% on the five year average, continuing a long-term trend of increasing assaults against the police.
There were 550 assaults in Edinburgh (E division) with a further 402 in Lothian and Borders (J), but specific Covid-related numbers are unavailable. The highest number of assaults recorded was in Greater Glasgow, where 1577 assaults were recorded, of which 336 were Covid-related.
Deputy Chief Constable, People and Professionalism, Fiona Taylor said: “Officers and staff stepped-forward to help combat the spread of the virus, conducting in excess of 120,000 interactions with members of the public to explain rapidly changing guidance, encourage everyone to do the right thing and enforce the law where required.
“I am grateful to the vast majority of people who responded with remarkable co-operation and support for their police service.
“Officers and staff work with dedication and a commitment to helping people and violence and abuse against them is utterly deplorable and unacceptable. It is not simply part of the job and will not be tolerated.”
Police Scotland has brought additional focus to tackling the concerning issue of violence and abuse against officers and staff under the Your Safety Matters initiative, led by DCC Taylor.
The initiative, in which staff associations and unions are represented, contributed to the development of the Chief Constable’s Assault Pledge, backed by the Lord Advocate and the Cabinet Secretary of Justice.
The pledge was launched in August 2020 and promised to provide appropriate support to colleagues where violence occurs, as well as calling on wider society and the public to support policing.
During the last year, Police Scotland has established an enhanced Operational Safety Training programme which increases the annual refresher course from one day to two days and introduces new techniques and de-escalation tactics.
New guidance for officers and staff has also been published to support better reporting of health and safety incidents and assaults.
DCC Taylor said: “Tackling the concerning trend of increasing assaults on officers and staff is a priority for Police Scotland.
“It causes physical and psychological harm to dedicated public servants. There is also a cost to the public purse through days lost to ill-health or personal injury claims.
“We will continue to work to better understand how we prevent violence and abuse against officers and staff, what impact it has on our colleagues, and how we can better support them to do their job.”
Police Scotland recently asked for public views on armed police officers using Body Worn Video cameras to record certain incidents. Almost 9,000 people took part in that survey and the majority thought the use of BWV would increase trust and confidence in the police and make them feel safer.
This positive response means we will now equip our armed police officers with body worn video cameras this year. In addition, we expect to start a national consultation with the public in the summer about providing BWV cameras to more officers and staff right across Scotland.
We have improved our infrastructure to support more take-up of existing Taser provision and are engaging with partners and elected representatives about plans to increase the numbers of Specially Trained Officers equipped with this important safety kit.
Focus on the critical issue of officer and staff safety will continue in 2021-22 and further details will be released as progress is made.
