SNOW Patrol band member Tom Simpson did not appear at court yesterday to answer drugs charges. The keyboard player and his friend Colin Kennedy were excused attendance. Simpson and Kennedy, both 35, are accused of possessing cocaine in Glasgow in June 2006.

SNOW Patrol star Tom Simpson was yesterday excused attending a drugs case in court for the second time. The band's keyboard player is accused of possessing cocaine in Glasgow city centre on June 24 last year. But Simpson and co-accused Colin Kennedy did not appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

By MARTIN WILLIAMS and CALUM MACDONALD THE recipient of Scotland's first "green Asbo" could be jailed after pleading guilty yesterday to illegally dumping hundreds of used car tyres.

By GRANT MCCABE A DEPUTY head teacher charged with assaulting an unruly pupil was acquitted yesterday nine months after being accused. Simon Simpson, 4 2 , was suspended after the 11-year-old boy claimed the teacher had dragged him across the floor of the school dining hall.

CHILD protection laws have been slammed after a Glasgow deputy head teacher was found not guilty of assaulting an unruly pupil after he lifted him up. Simon Simpson, 42, was alleged to have injured the 11-year-old by dragging him across a dining hall floor at the East End primary school.