David Leask from the Evening Times in Glasgow has been named Reporter of the Year and overall Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.

He took two of the 20 top prizes handed out at the event, as judges described his work as “compulsive reading”.

He received the prizes for his one-man investigation into the unsavoury culture of teenage street gangs and revealed the mindset of gratuitous violence as a way of life.

Judges said: “He ventured into a social infrastructure alien to accepted normal behaviour and daily put himself in physical danger. A story that could so easily have been over-heated, predictable and superficial was instead genuinely revealing, well-balanced and thoughtful.”

Michael Tierney from The Herald was named Feature Writer of the Year, while his colleague Simon Bain was named Financial/Business Writer of the Year. The Herald’s Steven Camley won Cartoonist of the Year.

John Hutcheson from the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser scooped Weekly Newspaper Journalist of the Year.

The Campaign of the Year prize went to the Shetland Times for its Free Sakchai campaign.

Judges said it had the four features of a classic newspaper campaign – it was brief, it was consistent and comprehensive in seeking support, it aroused the passions of the community and it was totally successful.

It also aroused support in the national media and achieved a very happy ending.

Other winners included the Daily Record, which was named Newspaper of the Year, and former Scotsman journalist Fordyce Maxwell received a lifetime achievement award.

A full list of winners and runners-up is below.

The prizes were handed out during a ceremony and dinner at Glasgow’s Radisson SAS Hotel, hosted by Lorraine Kelly.

The awards were set up by the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society to encourage and promote standards of journalism and recognise professional talent and skills.

They are open to journalists and photographers working for newspapers and magazines published in Scotland and Scottish based journalists and photographers writing exclusively on Scottish affairs for non-Scottish publications.

Charles Wilson, chairman of the judges, said: “In what has been a turbulent year in the media industry the quality of newspaper journalism has not faltered.”

The winners are:

Sports Photographer of the Year
Winner: Kenny Ramsay, The Scottish Sun
Runner up: Tom Main, Freelance