The Edinburgh Reporter October 2025

By STEPHEN RAFFERTY

TROUBLED Edinburgh restaurant

owner Alexander Galpin has closed

one of his two Edinburgh burger joints.

Luxford Burgers in St Leonard’s

Street is no longer open but the

Brandon Terrace outlet in Canomills

remains operational, however the

website link to book tables at both

restaurants appears to be inactive.

Galpin, 24, “phoenixed” the Luxford

Burgers chain in January after its

parent company, Secure Kitchens Ltd,

was placed into liquidation with debts

of around £120,000, leaving many

small independent businesses out of

pocket and an outstanding HMRC bill

of almost £80,000.

The former winner of Edinburgh

Chamber of Commerce’s Rising Star

Award claims to operate a £6 million

a year hospitality management

business and portfolio of UK

restaurants but annual accounts

lodged at Companies House would

appear to suggest otherwise.

Galpin was due to appear for

sentence in relation to domestic abuse

charges at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on

30 September (after The Edinburgh

Reporter went to press). He earlier

pleaded guilty to aggressive behaviour

towards his ex-partner and mother of

his young daughter - who he

described as “a cancer, nothing more

nothing less” - while the ex-partner

was pregnant and carrying the child.

Global legal firm, Clifford Chance,

withdrew the offer of a prestigious

traineeship following revelations

Galpin’s domestic abuse conviction.

The Edinburgh Reporter asked

Alexander Galpin for a comment but

he failed to respond.

55

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

A BUSINESSMAN who terrorised

two grey seal pups with a large

wooden stick at a picturesque

Scots harbour has been ordered to

pay a fine.

Richard Montgomery used an

eight foot fence post to “prod and

push” the vulnerable animals back

into the sea at the harbour in

North Berwick last year.

Montgomery, 62, forced one of

the seals to jump around 10 feet

into the water and was said to

have left the second young animal

“screeching” and showing “clear

signs of distress”.

The shocking incident was

halted when office workers ran

from their workplace to confront

the man who quickly left the scene

on his pushbike. 

The police were alerted and

Montgomery - who runs a golf

hospitality tour business - was

arrested and charged. When he

appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff

Court Montgomery claimed he was

attempting to help the seals back

into the water but his actions were

slammed as “inept and ignorant” by

a sheriff and and “ill-judged and

ill-informed” by prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of

conducting himself in a disorderly

manner by harassing two grey seal

pups by poking and pushing them

with a piece of wood that resulted

in one seal jumping eight to 10

feet into the sea and he did

commit a breach of the peace at

North Berwick harbour.

Sheriff O’Carroll sentenced

Montgomery to pay a £1,000 fine

to mark the offence.

AN EDINBURGH BARBER who

carried out savage campaigns of

violent abuse against four women

has been jailed for five years and

banned from contacting his

victims for life.

David John Appleby, 47,

attacked his former partners by

punching, kicking and strangling

them at his Edinburgh home over

a 16 year period.

Appleby head butted and

repeatedly stamped on the head

of one victim, left a second woman

unconscious after he twisted a

necklace around her neck and

jammed the head of a third

woman in a door.

Appleby, who owns the Gorgie

Road Barbers business, threatened

to shave off the hair of one terrified

woman and another was left with

permanent scarring to her face

after he pushed her onto a weights

bench.

He also threw a glass bottle at a

woman and poured alcohol over

her head, issued threats to kill a

second victim and was said to have

racially abused a third.

All the violent domestic abuse

offences took place at two

addresses in the Dalry area of the

capital and occurred on various

occasions between January 2003

and December 2019. 

Appleby denied all the

allegations against him but was

found guilty of 10 charges on

indictment including assaulting

women to the danger of their life by

a jury following an eight day trial.

Following the verdict Appleby

was remanded in custody. He

returned to the dock for sentencing

on 10 September when Advocate

David Taylor said his client

“maintains his position at trial”.

Mr Taylor said Appleby admitted

drug use had been an issue in his

life but now describes himself as “a

changed man” in relation to his

substance misuse.

Sheriff Iain Nicol said the social

work report had stated Appleby

had “minimised much of your

behaviour” and his offending has

had “a long lasting and possibly

lifelong negative effect” on the

lives of the women involved.

Appleby, from Dalry was jailed

for five years across all charges and

was handed non-harassment

orders banning him from

approaching or contacting all four

victims for an indefinite period.

A CHARITY MANAGER who stole

£30,000 from victims suffering

from cerebral palsy and multiple

sclerosis to feed her online

gambling habit has been spared a

jail sentence.

Margaret Burnett was employed

with the Leonard Cheshire charity

when she stole cash from five

vulnerable and disabled residents

living at a supported

accommodation unit in Edinburgh.

The team leader used the victims’

bank cards to raid their accounts

and helped herself to a total of

£29,900 over a 30 month period.

The pensioner pleaded guilty to

embezzling the cash from the

residents between January 2014

and August 2016.

Following her admission, a

charity spokesperson described

Burnett’s conduct as “a despicable

abuse of trust” and said the

organisation has reimbursed all

the stolen money.

Last month lawyer Mr Gilmartin

said Burnett has paid all the money

back to the charity.

Sheriff Charles Walls told the OAP,

from Granton, Edinburgh, she had

carried out “a gross breach of trust”

and the offences had “required

significant planning and execution”.

Burnett was placed on a 12

month supervision order and will

have to remain within her home

between 7pm and 7am for six

months as part of a restriction of

liberty order.

She was also ordered to pay the

four victims who are still living

£3,000 each in compensation.

Previously the court heard

Burnett had worked with the

charity at the supported

accommodation residential unit in

Edinburgh between 2003 and 2016.

Residents had their finances

controlled by staff and all

transactions from their bank

accounts had to be officially

logged in a cash book.

Prosecutor Xander van der

Scheer told the court one female

resident, who has since died,

suffered from cerebral palsy while

a second male victim suffered from

multiple sclerosis.

Mr van der Scheer said Burnet

had taken money from one man

while he was bed-bound in

hospital and was “physically unable

to withdraw the cash”.

Burnett was sacked following a

charity investigation and was

charged with fraud in November

2019.

A spokesperson for Leonard

Cheshire said: “This was a despicable

abuse of trust by Ms Burnett, who

was suspended and subsequently

dismissed by the charity as soon as

concerns were raised.”

A BUSINESSMAN accused of

upskirting a teenage schoolgirl at a

Taylor Swift concert in Scotland

has walked free from court.

Andrew Hunter was alleged to

have placed his mobile phone up

the dress of the child and recorded

her genitals or underwear at the

gig at Murrayfield Stadium in

Edinburgh in June last year.

The girl claimed she had

witnessed the 65-year-old

recruitment consultant repeatedly

drop his device on the ground

underneath her with the camera

app open.

She said Hunter had put the

phone “under my skirt” and

believed he was taking indecent

images of her as she stood in the

stands watching the US pop

megastar. She claimed a married

couple standing behind her had

also seen what he was doing and

had alerted security.

Hunter, denied the allegations

stating the girl was “entirely wrong”

about what had happened and

that he had been using his phone

to search for a lost £10 note.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court round up

By PHYLLIS STEPHEN

THE CALTON HILL CONSERVATION

TRUST (CHCT) has declared an

Erosion Emergency on the hill which is

designated a Site of Special Scientific

Interest and which is owned by the

council as Common Good land.

CHCT look after the area at the top

of one of Edinburgh’s hills where they

say there is now a real problem - but

one which can easily be fixed.

The Chair of CHCT, Simon Holledge,

met me on the hill to take a look at the

damage. He said: “We have looked at

aerial photos for the last 20 years when

the area to the front of the National

Monument was all grassed - with small

patches of erosion - but these have got

bigger and bigger since.”

Looking up to the National

Monument there are barriers around a

120 square metre area which has been

rebanked and returfed in a 50/

initiative between CHCT and The City

of Edinburgh Council.

This project cost less than £1,

and CHCT would like to repeat it on

other areas of the hill. It is only the

central section which was returfed -

the rest was reseeded - but the whole

area looks much the same in that it is

completely covered by lush green

grass. After re-seeding or re-turfing it

needs to be roped off for at least eight

weeks.

Mr Holledge declares the pilot

scheme a success. He said: “We put

down new earth here, and dug up the

impacted earth with a rotovator, then

the council put new earth on top. We

want to extend the pilot now by

seeding and turfing a larger area.”

He explained that this could be

done while retaining passages for

people to walk on. The Trust asks that

the council spends money which

Simon says they already have - there is

apparently around £6,000 held in the

council coffers which came from the

parks levy paid by the Beltane Society

for the use of the hill for their

celebrations.

The best time to do re-banking,

re-seeding and re-turfing is from

October to December. But Simon said

that “unfortunately the council are

talking about holding over all the

work until the spring - despite having

the money sitting in the bank - and

despite the spring not being the best

time to do the work.”

https://caltonhilltrust.org/timeline/

Luxford closes St Leonard’s

Galpin (right) removing equipment

Erosion Emergency

Calton Hill