Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Teen tried to flee court
A TEENAGER jumped out of the dock in Dundee Sheriff Court and tried to flee the building after being remanded for admitting a dozen charges.
The boy, who is too young to be named, was caught and restrained by a police officer and a GeoAmey worker after he resisted being handcuffed and hurled himself over the top of the glass barrier behind the dock and made for the door.
The 17-year-old had not been present when his solicitor pled guilty on his behalf on Monday, citing coronavirus.
However, it was found this was not true and he was found by police at another address.
Sheriff Paul Brown remanded the student and sentencing was deferred until June 27.
Listed as a HMP Kibble inmate, the boy had admitted acting in a threatening manner in Dundee on June 19 2020 by brandishing a brick at a male and threatening to strike a vehicle, as well as to threatening to blow up a car and house full of people in Glenconnor Drive.
He admitted that on August 18 2020, he assaulted a man at Poplar Grey Court by approaching him while in possession of a metal pole and robbing him of his car keys and car.
On the final day of that month, he drove dangerously in a different vehicle on streets in Dundee’s Whitfield at speed and on the wrong side of the road.
He overtook a vehicle at a junction, turned sharply at speed and mounted a kerb.
All four of the car tyres left the road as he entered a grassy area and pavement.
On September 6 2020, he assaulted a boy who had turned 15 less than a month before by approaching him from behind on Banchory Road and robbing him of his bicycle.
Two days later, the boy drove a third car along Broughty Ferry Road while uninsured and too young to hold a licence.
He drove dangerously by travelling at excessive speed, failing to stop for a red light and entering the opposing carriageway to overtake a queue of traffic which was stopped at traffic lights.
He admitted breaching a trio of bail curfews.
The boy also admitted playing his part in a carjacking described in Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday, for which his co-accused was bailed.
When he was just 15, he hurled an exhaust box out of the window of a Honda carjacked by his acquaintance – also a 15-year-old – as police pursued them.
Fiscal depute Lora Apostolova explained the complainer had used a Snapchat account to advertise running lifts as an informal taxi service and he had received a message at 9pm asking to take some boys from Fintry to Whitfield.
He picked up the boy’s co-accused and three other men, wearing hoods and face coverings, across two stops.
When they arrived in Whitfield, the boy’s co-accused began wrestling with the driver for his key, snatching his iPhone 8 from between the front seats.
After a violent struggle, the driver left the boys in the car, which they took on a joyride through Angus.
Police received a report of a stolen vehicle just before 11pm and traced the car near the Westway Retail Park in Arbroath after midnight.
The vehicle was taken around a roundabout the wrong way and driven south along the A92 at speeds of 100mph before turning into Carnoustie.
It was here the exhaust was thrown from the vehicle, just before the driver clipped a Mercedes and sped on towards Barry Road, again negotiating a roundabout in the wrong direction.
Officers tried to deploy a tyre trap but the Honda was travelling too fast to allow them to set it up.
A police vehicle overtook to try to stop it but the driver clipped the squad car and reversed at speed, colliding with another’s wing mirror.
Police succeeded with a later tyre trap and the Honda eventually slowed, with all four tyres blown.
The Honda deliberately crashed into a police vehicle and both cars ended up on a grass verge.
The joyrider continued revving the engine to try to escape.
He will also be sentenced next month.