Vandal’s gallery rampage cost thousands of pounds

A GALLERY owner was devastated when a drunken teenager crashed through her front window and trashed the paintings and sculptures on display.

Susan Bennett had only taken over the Strathearn Gallery a few weeks before James Martin smashed the window and caused nearly £4,000 worth of damage.

Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court, Martin, 19, admitted culpably and recklessly destroying property at the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff on August 2 last year.

Mar tin, Dunkeld Road, Per th, admitted kicking in the window and damaging a number of pieces of art displayed in the window of the High Street gallery.

Depute fiscal Stuart Richardson told the court: “The figure I have for the damage is £3,946. That was the value of the paintings and the windows.

“The paintings were damaged by the glass going in.”

Sheriff FionaTait said: “Given the nature of the offence and, having regard to your age and the value of the damage, I will adjourn this case for reports.”

Martin had bail continued and will be sentenced on April 23.

Mrs Bennett said: “There were six items in total in the window and only one that the artist could do something with.

“He (Martin) damaged paintings and glass sculptures and they were irreparable.

“We had just taken on the gallery six or seven weeks earlier. We had moved back to Scotland after 10 years down south, so it was not a great welcome.

“We had been staying with my parents and had to drive to Crieff at midnight after we got the call from the police to say the window had been smashed.

“I think he hurt himself when he did it. It was really thick glass so he is quite lucky he didn’t do himself any real damage.

“According to witnesses, he ran across the road and threw himself at the window — which is always a bright thing to do. I was told he was quite a reasonable guy until he gets a drink in him.

“The biggest inconvenience was damaging art works that weren’t ours. We had to pay the artists to cover their losses.

“It also didn’t help that we had to have a big board in the window for over a week and it made it much more difficult in setting up our next exhibition.”