Pub break-in teenager’s behaviour‘escalated’

During the space of just three days, a teenager broke into a Perth city centre pub, carried out a brutal attack on another man and reset a mobility scooter outside another local bar.

Then, two days later, 18-yearold Christopher Devlin forced his way into a flat and behaved in a threatening or abusive manner.

Now a sheriff wants to find out why his offending behaviour has “suddenly escalated”.

The accused, who is currently on remand at Polmont Young Offenders’Institution, will return to Perth Sheriff Court for sentence on June 30 after a background report has been prepared.

He stole several bottles of alcohol from The Grill, in Perth’s Fleshers Vennel, on March 29, and then, the following day, at York

Place, he assaulted a man by repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head, to his severe injury.

On March 31, the accused admitted resetting the mobility scooter in the grounds of the Bank Bar, South Methven Street, knowing it had been stolen.

His catalogue of crime continued on April 2 at a flat in Perth’s Canal Crescent when he behaved in a manner“likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm”.

The court heard that he entered the premises by force during the night and shouted.

The teen was subject to a November 18, 2020, bail order from Glasgow Sheriff Court when he carried out the offences on the four-charge indictment.

Sheriff Gillian Wade told his lawyer:“His previous convictions have suddenly escalated from 2020.

“He’s a young man and something has gone seriously wrong.

“I want a community justice social work report to look into the circumstances of what’s happening in his life and, more broadly, what causing this vast escalation in his behaviour.”

The circumstances surrounding the four offences will be given at the end of the month.