Teenager told by sheriff she would have been detained 30 years ago

A teenager who bit and kicked four police officers was allowed to walk free from court – then told by a sheriff she would have faced custody 30 years ago.

The 17-year-old girl was sent on a community-based course as Sheriff Lindsay Foulis launched a thinly-veiled attack on Scotland’s soft-touch justice system.

The girl – who cannot be named because of her age – sank her teeth into one police officer’s leg and hand.

She also kicked and punched a female officer on the head, elbowed another in the head and had to be placed in rigid handcuffs and carried to a police van.

Sheriff Foulis warned the teenager she should not think she was getting away with her crimes because she was being placed on a social work course.

He said at Perth Sheriff Court: “Let me make an observation to you, just in case you think ‘oh well, that’s me just getting a ticking off and I can carry on and not worry about addressing any issues I have’.

“That is sometimes the impression I gain from young people like you in their later teens, standing here before me having accepted their guilt to relatively serious offences.

“To put your behaviour in perspective, 30 or more years ago, when I was a young solicitor, a 17-year-old pleading guilty to four charges of police assault, including biting an officer on the leg and hand, kicking two officers – including a female officer on the head – would almost certainly have resulted in that teenager being sentenced to detention in a young offenders’ institution.”

He added: “I express no comment whether it’s better that’s not the immediate default position these days or not.”