Sheriff left red-faced after mobile phone plays Guns N' Roses classic

Sheriff left red-faced after mobile phone plays Guns N' Roses classic

Jun 27 2012 By Nick Jedrzejewski

A SHERIFF was left red-faced yesterday when his mobile phone started playing Guns N’ Roses in court.

Sheriff Craig McSherry, 63, was dealing with a drugs case when Sweet Child O’ Mine started blaring out.

As a uniformed court officer looked around to work out where the song was coming from, the sheriff fumbled and pulled his phone out his pocket.

He managed to turn the rock classic off a few seconds into the introduction, before the rest of the band kicked in.

Muted sniggers could be heard from the public benches as lawyers in the Dunfermline court exchanged smiles.

After silencing his phone, the sheriff looked up and said “sorry” before nodding to a lawyer to continue with proceedings.

Mobiles are banned in all Scotland’s courts while they are in session.

Signs are placed on all doors as people enter court warning them to switch them off.

In Dunfermline, officials say they should not be used anywhere in the court building, because even if they don’t ring out loud, their signals can interfere with the public address system.

In Stirling Sheriff Court, mobile phone owners have been threatened with being held in contempt of court and placed in the cells if their mobiles ring while the presiding sheriff is on the bench.

In Falkirk Sheriff Court in 2005, Sheriff Albert Sheehan threatened to have a mobile dumped in a bucket of water after it started playing The Entertainer during proceedings.

Yesterday’s incident isn’t the first time a sheriff’s phone has gone off in court.

In December 2010, Perth Sheriff Robert McCreadie’s phone began ringing during court proceedings.

Sheriff McSherry has been on the bench for 12 years.

The dad-of-two, who is originally from Ardrossan, Ayrshire, is a graduate of Glasgow University.

He now lives in one of the smartest streets in Edinburgh’s posh New Town.

In Frost’s Scottish Who’s Who, the sheriff lists his interests as “country pursuits, skiing, music, bridge and golf”.

He was one of the first lawmen in Scotland to embrace new technology, typing into a laptop on the bench when most of his colleagues were still using notebooks.