A convicted sex oftender gave a lift to three teenage girls in breach of a court order hours after escaping a jail sentence in May for a similar oftence. Then when Darren Duncan, a 32-year-old offshore oil worker with Fort William connections, heard that police were looking for him, he went on the run.
But he was eventually caught earlier this year at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel and when Duncan appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court on Thursday, he again avoided prison.
Instead, because he had been on remand since May 21, Sheriff Margaret Neilson decided that he had spent sufficient time in prison and sentenced him to eight months, backdated to that date.