Eight month sentence for Cathedral thief

A man was jailed for eight months at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Friday for breaking into the St Magnus Cathedral and stealing a quantity of money from a donation box.

Appearing from custody, Richard Norman Tulloch (26), Clifton, Upper Crantit Road, St Ola also admitted stealing a rucksack and attempting to obtain money from a bank cashpoint in Kirkwall with a stolen card while on bail.

Defence agent David Fairnie explained that Tulloch, who has a serious drug dependency problem, had been back in Orkney for six weeks and had turned to alcohol after taking himself off a methodone rehabilitation programme.

"He will not be returning to Orkney after his break-in at the Cathedral, as he puts it, his name is mud." added Mr Fairnie.

Sentencing Tulloch to a total of eight months, Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie said: "For anyone who has Orcadian connections, to break in the Cathedral and steal a donation box seems to me to be almost unbelievable."