Lengthy jail sentence for ‘vicious’ attack on teenager

A man has been jailed for an unprovoked attack on a schoolboy.

Josh King assaulted the 13-year-old as he walked home from a friend’s house.

The youngster required hospital treatment after the attack in Dunfermline, which only ended when a woman went to his aid.

He was punched, kicked on the head, seized by the throat and knocked to the ground by King, who was jailed for 34 months when he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

King, 21, a prisoner at Perth, previously admitted the assault on June 7.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner told the court the boy saw King leaning against a vehicle speaking to someone inside and continued walking but King crossed the road.

She said: “He walked towards him and without any provocation attacked him.

“He grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground.”

A woman in a nearby office heard the boy’s shouts and screams and saw him being thrown to the ground and curling up into a ball.

He was kicked at least three times to the face, the court heard.

The victim was taken to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

He required stitches to a face wound, had a severely swollen nose and one of his front teeth had been dislodged.

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said his client had admitted his guilt from the outset and was horrified by graphic photographs of the injuries but “doesn’t remember the incident at all.”

Sheriff MacNair said: “This was a vicious and sustained attack. It was wholly unprovoked.”