Two brothers took the law into the own hands when a living room window at their parents’ home was smashed by vandals.
John and Richard Saunders tracked down two children they suspected were involved, pulled them out of a shop and took them for a ride in their car.
The incident in Lochore resulted in the pair being charged with abduction.
John, 53, and Richard, 50, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and admitted assaulting the boys, aged 12 and 13, at Lochleven Road, Lochore, on September 30 last year.
They seized and pulled them by the body, removed them from a shop, struck one of them on the head and abducted both of them by forcing them into a vehicle and driving them away.
The brothers also removed their mobile phones from them to prevent them calling for assistance and detained them against their will.
Boys were ‘terrified’
Depute fiscal Sarah Smith said that at around 8.30pm “an item was thrown at a living room window, cracking it.”
After this incident, the two boys were tracked down to a Co-op store by the two men, grabbed and taken outside.
They were bundled into the back of a vehicle and driven off with threats being made that the men were “going to batter them”.
The prosecutor said that the boys were described as being “terrified” by this stage.
After the car stopped, the brothers told the boys they were “giving them a fright”.
At 9.45pm, the mother of one of children heard a car pull up outside her home.
John Saunders was seen pulling her boy by the jumper and told the mum what had happened.
He said that his mother’s window had been smashed and that “it’s been going on for months”, added the depute.
‘I realised what I was doing was wrong’
Asked if he had anything to say to the court, John Saunders, who was representing himself, said, “The window wasn’t cracked, it was shattered and smashed.
“I got a call from my parents to say their window had been smashed and as I drove to their house, I saw them (the boys) walking from there towards the Co-op.”
He said: “When I went into the house my mum was so upset and I didn’t know what to do.
“I went to look for them and they were in the shop like nothing had happened.”
Saunders said the boys had told them that someone from Cardenden had also been there at the time and so they had gone looking for him at bus stops.
Saunders said: “I realised what I was doing was wrong” and he then took the boys home.
Sheriff Steven Borthwick called for reports and the brothers – of Kenilworth Terrace and Melrose Gardens, Lochore – will return to court for sentencing on June 6.
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