Angry driver hit teenager

Youth pushed to ground

A 27-year-old man attacked a teenager almost half his age near a city secondary school after accusing him of throwing stones at his new car.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that burly Daniel Ellwood grabbed the 14-year-old by the clothing, pushed him to the ground and then punched him once on the head.

The accused, said by Sheriff Richard McFarlane to “have a propensity for violence,” will be sentenced on September 28 after a background report has been prepared.

He was found guilty of assaulting the teenager by seizing hold of his neck and then punching him in Viewlands Road West, Perth, on November 8 last year.

The youngster said the incident took place as he walked home with a friend after school.

Ellwood had a beard and he was able to pick him out of a selection of images he had been shown at Perth Police Station in June of this year.

The youth, who gave his evidence from behind a screen, said he was “scared and upset” after being assaulted by the man, who was a stranger to him.

He admitted, however, that he had thrown an acorn - or something similar - at the accused’s car.

Giving evidence, Ellwood, of Baldovan Terrace, Dundee, said he had bought his car a Volkswagen Golf - that day and was “taking it up the road” to show his mum.

There were two boys “fooling around” and one bent down and picked up a stone which struck his car.

“He still had stones and a stick in his hand and I was thinking he may use them against me,” he told the sheriff.

Represented by Perth lawyer Paul Ralph, Ellwood denied taking hold of the boy or punching him and suggested he may have tripped on the pavement behind him and that’s how he ended on the ground.

He insisted he was telling the truth and commented at the end of his evidence: “The falsification here is quite alarming.”

Sheriff McFarlane however, believed the evidence given by the assault victim and said the manner in which the accused had given his testimony didn’t give him (the sheriff ) any confidence he was telling the truth.

It emerged that the accused has a previous conviction from Perth Sheriff Court in August, 2015, when he was fined £800 and ordered to pay £200 compensation on two charges of assault and one of breach of the peace, committed at Perth nightspot The Loft.

He was also banned from that establishment for two years.

Deferring sentence on this latest incident, Sheriff McFarlane told Ellwood: “Clearly you have a propensity for violence and the sentencing options have to be explored.”

Clearly you have a propensity for violence