Teen attacker is making Right Track progress

A teenager, previously likened to “Jekyll and Hyde” when he has a drink, is responding well to a scheme set up to keep youngsters on the straight and narrow.

Perth Sheriff Court was told this week that 18-year-old Christopher Simpson had received a favourable progress report from those involved in Right Track, which has been credited with turning round the lives of many local youngsters.

He was given the chance to take part in the scheme after he repeatedly punched a customer on the head, to his injury, at The Bank Bar, in Perth’s South Methven Street, on July 25, 2020.

He also acted in a racially aggravated manner towards the other man, which was “intended to cause alarm or distress,” by shouting and swearing and making racial remarks towards him.

Simpson, of Castlelaw Crescent, Abernethy, was also subject to two bail orders at the time.

Allowing the scheme to run to its conclusion until July, Sheriff Neil Bowie encouraged the accused to continue to work to “change his lifestyle” and those he had been associating with.

At the same time as imposing Right Track, Sheriff Bowie also spared Simpson time behind bars after he attacked three different members of staff during an explosion of violence at Perth Royal Infirmary.

Solicitor Billy Somerville said this week that his client was still subject to home detention from 7pm-7am but the unpaid work had yet to start because of COVID.

The accused admitted punching staff nurse Andrew Ferguson and damaging his glasses, biting staff nurse Megan Forbes and kicking staff nurse Kirsty Ogilvie at PRI on May 30, 2020.

Conceding that his client had an alcohol problem, the lawyer added: “When not drinking he’s pleasant, quiet and polite. When he takes drink, however, clearly he becomes someone totally different, like a Jekyll and Hyde character.”