A man who tried to steal live electrical cable from a Fife school has been told he is lucky to be alive.
William Adamson caused almost £10,000 of damage and left hundreds of homes without power following the raid at Glenwood High School in Glenrothes.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard the 40-year-old’s skin was melted onto the wire by the high voltage.
A horrified engineer arrived at the school to find skin and clothing still attached to the wire.
Adamson fled and was hospitalised for a month following the bungled thievery.
Bungled raid on school
Fiscal depute Andrew Brown said Adamson told police he had tried to take the cable for money.
He said: “At 3.30am the accused entered Glenwood High School, Glenrothes.
“He attempted to cut the wire, which was live, causing massive electrical surge to enter his body.
“This resulted in the melting of his skin and clothing onto the wire.
“The surge caused the power outage in the area.
“The power outage alerted Scottish Power Energy Networks to a potential fault and an engineer was called to investigate.
“The accused made his way to his ex-partner’s house and she contacted the Scottish Ambulance Service.
“An ambulance attended and saw that the accused had serious burns throughout his body – on his hands, on his own arms, through his chest, down his legs and down to his feet.
“He was transferred to the Victoria Hospital to fully assess his injuries.
“A short time later, an engineer arrived at the locus for an investigation and began to identify the fault.
“In the area where the accused had been, he observed there was a damaged wire with melted skin and clothing on it.”
Nearly £10k damage
The engineer called the police, who rang local hospitals to find out if any burns victims had been admitted.
They spoke to the accused at the Victoria Hospital, who told them “I’m sorry. I was just doing it to make some money”.
Due to the severity of his injuries, he was transported to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where spent a month.
Mr Brown said 384 homes were left without power for nine hours, with Scottish Power experts putting the cost of the damage at £9936.86.
He added engineers had “put themselves at risk” while carrying out repairs.
Adamson, of Kerrera Place, Glenrothes admitted attempting to steal wire cable from Glenwood High on September 6 2020.
He further admitted acting acting culpably and recklessly by cutting the live wire.
‘Lucky to be alive’
Solicitor Martin McGuire, defending, said Adamson had undiagnosed mental health issues at the time of the incident.
He said his client had since sought treatment, following a period of compulsory treatment in 2022.
He said: “He has a little recollection of the incident prior to being medicated.”
He urged a sheriff to avoid jailing Adamson due to the steps he had taken to resolve his issues.
Sheriff Gordon Liddle told Adamson his criminal record showed every type of sentence available but he was, just, persuaded to impose an alternative to custody.
He said: “There’s no way of compensating the public for what you did because it would cost too much.
“Sending you into custody would be an expensive option as well.
“You are lucky to be alive.
“You are lucky to be in this court.”
He ordered Adamson to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
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