A young man led police on a scarcely believable pursuit through Perthshire after driving one of Police Scotland’s own cars from a sealed compound.
Marked units tailed David Mullen through Perth, Scone, Coupar Angus and Blairgowrie as he tore through communities in a powerful marked Mitsubishi Outlander.
He evaded capture for more than an hour before a stinger device punctured his tyres and brought him to a halt outside New Alyth.
However, Mullen, previously of Scott Street in Perth, was found formally not guilty of the charges and acquitted after the Crown accepted he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the events.
Sheriff Fiona Tait made the 29-year-old subject to a compulsion order requiring that he be detained at Murray Royal Hospital for the next six months to receive medical treatment.
Though the judgment does not count as a criminal conviction, Perth Sheriff Court heard full details of the incidents that led to his appearance in the dock.
Mullen had stood accused of breaking into the city’s police station, stealing a set of keys and fleeing in a marked car on October 1 last year.
He was further accused of a catalogue of allegations, including failing to stop for a police officer, driving recklessly through a barrier and driving without insurance and a licence.
Mullen had also been said to have driven dangerously at Perth police station, Charlotte Street, the A94, A923 Coupar Angus to Blairgowrie road, various roads in Blairgowrie and Rattray and the A929 Rattray to New Alyth road, driving and on the opposite carriageway, colliding with a police vehicle, carrying out overtaking manoeuvres on blind corners and in the face of oncoming traffic, driving in excess of the speed limit and failing to stop until the vehicle was brought to a halt using a containment device.
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