Drugged up teen had blades on him

A troubled teenager, off his face on drink and drugs, was caught with two blades on a Perth housing estate in the early hours.

One of them, a black-handled kitchen knife, was seen protruding from 19-year-old Luke Macdonald’s jumper pocket.

A snap bag containing cocaine was also seized after he appeared to be “under the influence of drink or drugs,” Perth Sheriff Court was told.

Asked by Sheriff Lindsay Foulis why he had the knives, lawyer Pauline Cullerton replied: “He can’t remember.

“He was completely out of it.” She added: “He has little recollection of what happened that evening.

“He does remember deciding to drive a car but doesn’t get very far with it.”

In a separate incident a month later, he “borrowed” his dad’s van to give a friend a lift home but was caught driving with more than three times the legal booze limit.

Macdonald, of Rose Cottage, Old Church Road, Wolfhill, was said to have a “not insignificant record” and is currently subject to a community payback order.

Sheriff Foulis added: “Custody would be an easy and perhaps obvious option.”

But there was a “presumption” against imposing sentences of less than 12 months on people aged 16-21 and the accused fell “slap bang” into that age bracket.

A background report didn’t make “optimistic reading” but there were two “glimmers of hope.”

The accused has a job, working 11-hour shifts with the Binn Group at Glenfarg - and he had stayed out of further trouble since June of this year.

Sentence was deferred until February 17 but he was told he would have to complete the existing unpaid work and wouldn’t be facing any other charges when he returned to court.

If these two conditions were satisfied, Sheriff Foulis said he would consider imposing a further community-based order.

If not, custody would be the likely option.

Macdonald admitted having the two knives and the Class A drug at the Lade Path, near a children’s playpark in Stanley Crescent, on May 17, 2020.

He also failed to provide two breath specimens for analysis at Dundee Police HQ and breaching the terms of a 9.30pm-5am curfew.

The court was told that a neighbour heard a crash about 12.30am, looked out the window and saw the accused “jump into the driver’s seat of a vehicle in an attempt to drive it away.”

He was unsuccessful and was later traced by police and the two knives and cocaine were seized.

Mrs Cullerton said he had been with friends and had consumed alcohol and diazepam.

The accused also took away his father’s van without consent from Old Church Road on June 16, 2020, drove with 70 microgrammes of alcohol on his breath and again flouted the terms of his curfew by being out at 1am.

The lawyer said he still has just under 18 hours of unpaid work to complete on the earlier order.

An interim driving ban, imposed at an earlier court appearance, was continued until February 17 when an updated social work report will be provided.