The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Boozy youths slammed for smashing up centre
Abusiness owner has slammed boozy teenagers who scaled a 40ft building to smash the roof with golf clubs.
Charlotte Lorimer said there was a “trail of devastation” at Noah’s children’s soft play centre in Perth after a group of four or five boys caused thousands of pounds of damage.
Police Scotland have confirmed they attended shortly after 9pm on Sunday, at Old Gallows Road, and inquiries are ongoing to find those responsible.
Ms Lorimer watched CCTV footage back of the 10-minute rampage when she arrived to see the wreckage on Monday and admitted it was “devastating”.
She said: “The main thing that keeps going through my mind is why would anyone do this?
“Some of these kids are going to be old enough to leave school soon and this is how they are behaving.
“They’ve scaled the roof and put their own lives at risk, they’ve then stamped on a industrial roof and used golf clubs as well.”
The wrecking spree came to an end when bricks were lobbed through the windows, as Ms Lorimer admitted this hadn’t been the first night of trouble.
She added: “There was a lot of alcohol containers to the rear of the building and there were at least 12 people there in total, both boys and girls.
“It was only the boys that scaled the roof but this isn’t the first issue we’ve had down here.
“For good measure, they’ve come down and they’ve used breeze blocks to put through some of the windows at the cafe as well, it’s just so disappointing.”
A major clear-up operation is now underway to fix the industrial roof as Charlotte revealed the repair bill is well into the thousands.
Ms Lorimer said: “We’ve had roofers through from Glasgow and we had staff
here until 10.30pm last night emptying buckets of water because the roof wasn’t secured.
“The wind and the rain has caused more damage overnight, it’s basically been a 48 hour clean-up job that is going to cost well into the thousands to fix.
“These youths don’t understand what they’ve done here.”
She hopes that the damage to the building will not hamper the potential reopening of the centre in mid-june after
it closed at lockdown.
Ms Lorimer added: “We’ve had a lot of messages of support when we posted about the incident on social media.
“That has been greatly welcomed but after the whole lockdown situation this is just another body blow after a hard year.
“Hopefully we will still be able to reopen in the middle of June if that is the timescale out of lockdown. the start of
“We’ve just had to pick ourselves back up and get on with it.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “At around 9pm on Sunday May 2, police were called to a report of a vandalism at a play centre in Old Gallows Road, Perth.
“Inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident and anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland through 101, quoting incident number 3678 of May 2.”