A Comrie man who admitted assaulting a nine-year-old ”bully” has escaped punishment after a sheriff said the case had no business being at court.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the youth had spent three years making another boy’s life a misery, causing Simon Humphrey to take action.
During an incident outside his house, the 38-year-old grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and pushed him, moving him ”a couple of steps”.
After hearing the circumstances, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis decided he could deal with the matter by way of an ”absolute discharge”, enabling Humphrey to leave the court without punishment.
The sheriff told him: ”It strikes me that not so long ago this sort of complaint would not have seen the light of day and it certainly would not have troubled a court of law.”
Humphrey, of Tay Avenue, Comrie, had admitted assaulting the nine-year-old boy on June 27 this year by taking him by the neck and pushing him.
Solicitor Alison Mackay told the court: ”The (boy) had been forced to put up with bullying at the hands of the nine-year-old and others for a three-year period.
”He accepts that on this day he put his hands on the child to move him from his doorstep to his gate a distance of just a couple of steps. He accepts he should not have done this.”
Speaking outside court a relieved Humphrey said only that he wished the incident had never taken place.