A MAN has appeared in court charged with causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal road crash on New Year’s Day.

Stefan Sakatiuk, 34, from Fauldhouse, West Lothian, died when the
silver Vauxhall Signum he was a passenger in left the B7015 Sheephousehill Road and hit a tree on the edge of the village on January
1.

Richard Whiteford appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court today.

The 38-year-old, from West Lothian, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Whiteford also faced a further charge of causing death by dangerous driving whilst allegedly being disqualified and having no insurance.

He made no plea or declaration during the private hearing, and was remanded in custody until his next appearance which is expected to be next week.

Mr Sakatiuk’s family have paid tribute to him in a statement released through police.

They said: “It is a terrible shock to the whole family. Stefan was a much-loved son and brother, who especially loved his mum.

“Stefan will be dearly missed and we cannot believe that this has happened.”

WINNING the emotional battle over the ties that bind Scotland to the rest of the UK will be crucial in the independence referendum contest, David Cameron said.

The Prime Minister said there were “arguments of both the head and the heart” that needed to be made as he claimed Scotland would be worse off on its own.

But as well as the economic argument, Mr Cameron insisted that the campaign to preserve the union must also win the fight for the hearts of Scottish voters by showing “we are stronger together”.

Mr Cameron’s comments, at a joint press conference with his deputy Nick Clegg to mark the Westminster coalition’s mid-term review, came after figures showed Scots would be £1 worse off each year under independence, using an analysis of oil revenues over the course of devolution.

The analysis produced by Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander
was intended to expose the SNP claim that people would be £500 better off a year as a “myth” but independence campaigners seized on the £1 cost as being a “price worth paying”.

Mr Cameron said he expected that the No campaign would be able to show “categorically” that Scotland would be worse off.

He said: “I think there are important arguments of both the head and the heart that need to be made in this great debate about the future
of our United Kingdom and I profoundly hope that Scotland will vote to stay in the United Kingdom.

“I think when it comes to the arguments of the head, things like would Scotland be better off, I think we will be able to show, categorically, that Scotland would be worse off, would be less well off.”

He said there would be a changing pattern as North Sea oil runs down and also said there would be uncertainty over jobs in the defence and financial services sectors if Scots voted for independence.

But Mr Cameron insisted the financial considerations were only a part of the decision facing the Scottish people.

“There are arguments of the head, but I profoundly believe we must win not only the arguments of the head but also of the heart: that we are better off together in the United Kingdom, there’s a solidarity that we show each other, if different parts of the United Kingdom have a
difficult time we are all there ready to stand behind those parts of the United Kingdom.

“We are stronger together, we are better off together, we are safer together.

“So those heart arguments will also, I think, win the day.”

Mr Cameron praised Labour former chancellor Alistair Darling, who is leading the No campaign, for doing a “fantastic job”.

POLICE and forensic experts are preparing to reopen a family grave in
the search for the body of a schoolgirl who vanished more than half a century ago.

Moira Anderson was 11 when she went missing from her home in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, in February 1957 while running an errand for her grandmother.

It is widely believed that she was abducted and murdered, but her body has never been found.

The case remains unsolved, although convicted paedophile Alexander Gartshore, a Coatbridge bus driver who died in 2006, has been connected with the disappearance.

Tomorrow, investigators will start excavating the plot of Sinclair Upton, who was said to have been known to Gartshore, to see if the schoolgirl’s remains were hidden there by her killer.

The exhumation of the gravesite at Old Monkland Cemetery in Coatbridge, which is reportedly known to contain eight bodies, is expected to take several days.

Final preparations for the work were being carried out at the site today.

The operation, which will be conducted by Strathclyde Police and led by forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black, comes after a sheriff gave the green light to the move last month.

The process will involve highly-skilled personnel trained in the techniques required for this type of work, police said.

Experts are exploring the possibility that Moira’s body may have been dumped under a coffin in the grave, which was thought to have been open around the time of her disappearance.

Gartshore was blamed for Moira’s murder by his own daughter, Sandra Brown, in her book Where There is Evil.

DJ Dave Lee Travis has been bailed again by police investigating the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

The former Radio One presenter denied groping two women in BBC studios when he was held in November and said that in the past, tactile behaviour was regarded as “giving somebody a cuddle”.

Travis, 67, has taken great pains to distance himself from Savile and stressed the allegations against him have “nothing to do with kids” and are not linked to the disgraced TV presenter.

He spoke out in the wake of his arrest to say he had been accused of “squeezing the boobs of a couple of women” – something he vigorously denied.

The DJ – known as DLT – was held at 7.45am on November 15 and later released on bail.

He is alleged to have put his hand up one woman’s skirt and “jiggled” the breasts of another.

The Magic AM presenter was taken off air by the radio station’s owners when the claims emerged.

He was granted bail for a second time today and ordered to return to a police station on an unspecified date in March, Scotland Yard said.

Protesting his innocence outside his home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, last year, he said he did not want his name associated with “bloody evil” child abuse.

He said: “So let’s get down to brass tacks here – the first thing is I’ve been talking to the police about sexual… I can’t even remember what the word is now – in the old days it was called ‘putting your arm around somebody and giving them a cuddle’ but nowadays God knows.

“But anyway, I was accused of ‘squeezing the boobs of a couple of women’.

“So the point I want to make here is that none of the things I’ve been talking to the police about, or have talked to them about, is to do with children.

He continued: “I think that sometimes, you know, us guys who are a bit older, who are, shall we say, tactile, which is not a terrible thing to be, in the old days you put your arm around somebody and gave them a little kiss or a cuddle.

“Yeah, that’s fine. But nowadays, you know, you’d have to stop and think ‘Is this an assault?’

“Now, I’m not saying that I haven’t put my arms round people or anything like that, and I’m not saying that any of this is right or wrong at the moment, but I’m just trying to get the facts out.”

Police are looking at three strands within their inquiry: claims against Savile, those against Savile and others, and those against others.

Most of the allegations relating to “others” have been made against people associated with the entertainment industry, including ex-glam rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr.

THE body of a 24-year-old man has been found at a city train station.

The discovery was made shortly after midday on the railway tracks at platform eight on the low level of Glasgow Queen Street station on Saturday.

Officers are treating his death as unexplained and his relatives have been informed.

Police believe he may have fallen from the bridge on Dundas Street but would like to trace his last movements and establish the circumstances surrounding his death.

Detective Sergeant Nicola Phillips, of the British Transport Police (BTP), said: “The man was last seen on CCTV leaving the station around 11.35pm on Friday, January 4, and it is not entirely clear how he came to be on the tracks.

“I am, therefore, appealing for anyone who has any information which can help us piece together his movements between Friday night, and when his body was discovered, to contact BTP as a matter of urgency.”

MORE than £90,000 has been confiscated from a convicted drug dealer, prosecutors have said.

Lindsay Harkins, 45, originally from Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, has had to surrender £92,268 as the result of a confiscation order at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Harkins was convicted for the supply of cocaine which was imported from Spain into the UK via Prestwick, Glasgow and Newcastle airports, and sold to various locations throughout the Glasgow area and Dumfries and Galloway.

He was also found guilty of dealing amphetamine in September 2011 and sentenced to more than nine years in prison.

Lindsey Miller, head of the serious and organised crime division (SOCD), said: “Dealing in drugs is classed as a ‘lifestyle offence’, which allows us to investigate Harkins’ income over the six years leading up to his arrest.

“Forensic accountants calculated that £300,000 in that period could not be legitimately accounted for and therefore constituted his ‘criminal benefit’.

“Today’s confiscation order for £92,268 represents the amount which is available to us at this time.

“If further assets belonging to Harkins come to light in the future, the Crown can ask the court to recalculate the confiscation order up to the amount of the benefit recorded.”

Since 2003, the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act in Scotland has allowed more than £60 million to be recovered from criminals.

Money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act is invested by ministers in a variety of activities for children and young people through the CashBack for Communities programme.

FORMER Archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti has issued a fresh warning to the Scottish Government over plans to legalise gay marriage.

Conti, now the Archbishop Emeritus of Glasgow has described same-sex marriage as “morally defective” and has urged ministers not to equate “homosexual unions with heterosexual marriage” by legislating.

Conti’s latest remarks come as the Government continues to seek views on its Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill.

In a letter published in the Catholic journal, The Tablet, Conti wrote: “While it is true, certainly within Catholic social teaching, that governments are not required to make all immoral actions illegal, to many it is unhelpful, unnecessary and indeed profoundly unwise for political action to do quite the opposite, namely to attempt through the law, by equating homosexual unions with heterosexual marriage, to render moral what is in itself morally defective.”

He went on to say that the Catholic Church’s opposition must “surely be worthy of consideration” given its task to “promote the moral
well being of society”.

LGBT equality charity the Equality Network has called on the Government to stand firm on its proposed laws.

Tom French, policy co-ordinator for the charity, said: “In a free
society, Archbishop Conti is entitled to express his views, however offensive they may be.

“Thankfully, most people in Scotland support same-sex marriage and disagree with the assertion that their gay friends and family members are ‘morally defective’.

“The Catholic Church has long campaigned against equal rights for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and for Archbishop Conti
to imply that same-sex relationships should now be made illegal is evidence of a worrying anti-gay agenda.”

The Government announced plans to legalise same-sex marriage in July following a consultation which attracted 80,000 responses.

The proposals have already received cross-party support in Holyrood.

FIVE men accused of raping and killing a young student in India have arrived at court for pre-trial proceedings.

Police have charged the men with murder, rape and other crimes which could bring them the death penalty, following the death of Jyoti Singh Pandey last month.

The crime caused nationwide outrage, leading to massive protests.

After today’s hearing in New Delhi, Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal is expected to transfer their case to a fast-track court set up last week for their trial.

A sixth suspect who is 17-years-old is expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said last week that a DNA test confirmed that the blood of the victim matched bloodstains found on the clothes of all the accused.

THE leader of the English Defence League was today jailed for 10 months after admitting using someone else’s passport to travel to the United States.

Stephen Lennon, 30, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act 2010, at Southwark Crown Court.

Lennon used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic Flight from Heathrow to New York, but was caught out after his fingerprints were taken by customs officials.

He left the airport and entered the US illegally but left the country the following day, using his own passport to return to the UK.