Boy who killed man with one punch is freed
A SCHOOLBOY who killed a man with a single punch was spared a custodial sentence yesterday.
The 15-year-old hit Jack Wilson, 20, who fell to the ground and failed to get up. He died two days later.
The teenager had received a phone call from his distressed girlfriend, claiming Mr Wilson had kissed and touched her. She ran away, but thought he was following her.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lady Scott told the youth, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, she had decided justice was served by a community sentence.
She imposed a community payback order, with a two-anda-half year offender supervision requirement, saying: ‘I am satisfied you had no intention to cause such serious injury.’
Lady Scott said that, in sentencing, she had to take into account that he was a child still only aged 15.
She said she also took account of his immaturity at the time of the fatal attack, saying: ‘The violence involved was minimal.’
Noting that Mr Wilson’s family had been left devastated, the judge added: ‘Your victim was 20 years old and he had his whole life ahead of him.’
Lady Scott said it was clear from background information she had received the youth was generally of good character, but had also suffered tragic family circumstances.
She said he had expressed ‘profound remorse’ and accepted full responsibility for his conduct.
The teenager had admitted the culpable homicide of Mr Wilson in Holytown, Lanarkshire, on October 14 last year.
He struck the victim with one punch and aimed a kick at him, but the kick did not result in injury. Mr Wilson fell to the ground after the punch.
Prosecutor Sheena Fraser said: ‘Witnesses speak of hearing the deceased’s head connect with the ground.’
The boy returned to the scene with another teenager to check the victim was all right – but on seeing he was still on the ground he asked the friend to call an ambulance.
Mr Wilson was taken to Wishaw General Hospital, where a CT scan showed extensive bleeding to both sides of his brain. He was transferred to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where he underwent emergency neurosurgery. He died at the hospital on October 16. The cause of death was a head injury.
The boy told his parents he had hit an older person with a single punch and ‘the guy never got up’.
His father later went to the scene at his request and told a police officer his son was responsible for the assault.
Defence counsel Derek Ogg, QC, said: ‘There is no history of any kind of violence. There was no previous history between my client and this person.’
He said after the boy’s girlfriend indicated Mr Wilson was following her he had confronted him and struck the single blow.
Mr Ogg told the court it was ‘a distressing and unusual case’ and that the boy had been assessed as posing a very low risk of reoffending.