Teenager who stabbed boy in face walks free

Appeal court would overrule detention, says sheriff

A schoolboy who scarred another pupil for life by stabbing him in the face had downed a cocktail of drink and drugs.

The youth, who was 15 at the time, drank half a litre of vodka, three cans of Dragon Soop, which has a high caffiene content as well as being alcoholic, and took two ecstasy tablets before pulling a knife from his waistband and striking his victim twice in the face.

He was initially put on the Right Track scheme, designed to steer youngsters away from a life of crime.

The accused is now 16 and cannot be named for legal reasons.

At Perth Sheriff Court last week he was ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work and put under supervision for a year.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis had earlier compared the case to the killing of Cults Academy pupil Bailey Gwynne.

“You don’t have to have a particularly long memory to realise what happens when people in their early teenage years arm themselves with knives,” he told the accused.

But the sheriff told him there would be no point in locking him up.

He was sure the appeal court would overrule him if he jailed the teenager and they would let him out anyway because of his age and lack of convictions.

“At this stage I do not consider that custody is the appropriate disposal,” he said. “Nor do I think that it would be a disposal, frankly, which would be supported by the appeal court. That is just a statement of fact.”

The boy slashed his victim, who was also 15 at the time, after falling out with him during an under-age drinking session.

He had downed 20 units of vodka, 12 units of the alcopop and the ecstasy tablets.

Before pulling the knife from his waistband, the youth said: “Come outside and I’ll sort you out. Come outside and I’ll slash you.”

The court was told that the victim had been left permanently disfigured as a result of the incident.

The attacker, who was represented by local lawyer David Holmes, had attended a city secondary school until being excluded upon his arrest.

He admitted assaulting the other boy at an address in Firbank Road, Perth, in October 2016, by striking him twice on the face with a knife to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

He also pled guilty to having 0.1 grammes of cocaine, worth £10, in his possession at Perth Concert Hall on May 20 this year.

Sheriff Foulis said he would admonish him for that charge.

The unpaid work will have to be carried out within the next six months.

Sheriff Foulis warned him: “This is imposed as an alternative to custody.

“That will give you an idea of what will happen if you fail to perform the order.”