A student who struck a police officer with a lit flare in Dundee has dodged a football banning order.
Sports science student Myles Rae, 18, told a court he caught the smoking flare himself, before re-launching it into a crowd of fans.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told the incident happened when Rae got caught up in a group of older supporters during a fracas between rival fans outside a pub.
Rae, from Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, admitted culpably and recklessly throwing a lit pyrotechnic towards a large crowd, causing it to strike a police officer on the leg.
The incident took place in Main Street, Dundee, on October 8 last year – the day Dundee United beat Aberdeen 4-0 in a league match at Tannadice Park.
Caught flare and threw it again
Solicitor Theo Finlay, defending, told the court Rae and his friends became part of a group with older Aberdeen fans on their way to the match.
He said: “It was simply the case that they had gone into the same public house prior to going to the football.
“This flare seems to have been thrown across the road and he caught it.”
The court heard Rae then decided to throw it back and the dangerously hot pyrotechnic struck a male police constable on the leg.
Sheriff George Way placed Rae – who has a part-time job with Tesco – on a curfew for 60 days after noting the teenager did “not initiate” the incident.
He also said it was not “football-related in the classic sense” so a banning order was not necessary.
Sheriff Way said: “He is young and needs to get over what happened here.
“The flare came to be further transmitted, which is a serious matter.
“I really don’t believe this was football-related in the classic sense.
“It was culpable and reckless conduct related to a stupid decision with a flare, so I will not make a football banning order.”
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