A GALASHIELS man has been jailed for more than six months after being found guilty of stealing a laptop computer and possessing a knife.

Kevin Wilkinson had denied the offences dating back to last June at a jury trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

But a charge of assaulting a 66-year-old man in his home in Church Street, Galashiels, by repeatedly striking him on the head with a sex toy was found not proven.

The trial heard that when police visited flats in Gala Park to speak to 41-year-old Wilkinson about the alleged assault, they searched him in the common stairwell and found a knife in his pocket.

Wilkinson of Balmoral Avenue, claimed he had taken the laptop from the house in Church Street because he wanted to check it for any evidence of paedophilia.

Sheriff Peter Paterson imposed a jail sentence totalling 198 days which will run consecutively after Wilkinson's current 190 days prison term expires.