Badly shaken by stone-throwers

By Craig Smith

A KIRKCALDY woman has called for more to be done to address youth disorder after she was left badly shaken by stone-throwing youngsters over the weekend.

Norma Rutherford (69) had been walking along the town’s Promenade at around 12.45pm on Saturday when a group of youngsters began hurling stones at her and parked cars from the roof of the Mercat Shopping Centre multi-storey car park.

Although she was not hurt during the incident, a tearful Mrs Rutherford had clearly been affected by what had happened and she later had what she believes was a panic attack in the Marks & Spencer store nearby.

Thanking staff and customers in the shop for coming to her aid, Mrs Rutherford said, “Just what on earth is this world coming to when the only way some young folk can get enjoyment is by pelting stones at a 69-year-old woman?

“I didn’t see how many of them there were but they were on the roof of the multi-storey car park and of course when I shouted up to them they just kept throwing more stones.

“I phoned the police and they said if I wasn’t injured it was OK and just to go, but that they would send someone down to the Prom. I managed to get up to Marks & Spencer but I think the fright had got to me and I passed out for a second or two and felt myself falling into a rack of trousers.

“The next thing I knew I was sitting down in Marks, with all the M&S ladies and members of the public around me and looking very worried.

“They took me up to the coffee shop and I then called my husband to bring me home. Needless to say I have not had much sleep since—I guess I got more of a fright than I thought.”

Mrs Rutherford has contacted local MSPs and councillors in a bid to see if anything can be done to curb such anti-social behaviour, but also urged parents to play their part.

“These yobs are just cowards but it’s ordinary people that suffer—I’ve been in bits since it happened,” she added.

“They seemed to take great delight in making me try to jump around but there doesn’t seem to be much we can do. I don’t know what the answer is but something has to be done.”