A teenager who robbed an 11-year-old guiser of his haul of Halloween sweets has been told she was guilty of an “unpleasant crime”.
Kimberly Murray punched her victim in the face and grabbed his pumpkin-shaped bucket as she attacked him in a dark alley in Blairgowrie.
At Perth Sheriff Court the 17-year-old was ordered to pay her young victim £300 compensation and carry out 150 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order.
Murray had denied robbing the child, claiming that she had mistaken him for her cousin, on whom she had intended to play a prank.
Sheriff Derek O’Carroll dismissed her account of events as “invented” and found her guilty of the attack, which took place in Blairgowrie on October 31, 2012.
The victim, who gave evidence via video link, said he and five friends had been visiting houses when they walked down a poorly-lit footpath between Park Neuk and Harriet Row.
There he was approached from behind by Murray who tried to wrestle the bucket, containing sweets and some money, from his grip.
When he tried to pull it back, he said, Murray had hit him on the face, causing him to let go of his bucket of treats.
Murray, of Burrel Place in Blairgowrie, then ran off to a waiting car.
Sheriff O’Carroll said: “This was an unpleasant crime involving assault and robbery on a boy who was just 11 and all for a bucket of Halloween sweets and a few pounds.”