Inverness sheriff warns that "all options are open" for sentencing teen who kicked cat in "despicable" offence
An Inverness teenager kicked a cat on the body in front of his friends as it was filmed on a mobile phone.
Connor Lawless (19) appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentence, after previously admitting a breach of the peace which would cause a reasonable person, fear, alarm or distress.
Sheriff Robert Frazer, who declined to watch the video, told him: “I regard this as a despicable offence. I need further information on you, but all options are open to the court.”
The offence occurred between May and June 2018 in Inverness when Lawless, of Burnside Avenue, was 16 years old.
Defence solicitor Marc Dickson said there was a background to the offence, but it in no way excused what happened.
“It is an unpalatable course of conduct. He should not have behaved in this way. It is not lost on him the entirely inappropriate way he behaved then.
“He now works as an apprentice medical engineer. But when he was at primary school, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
“It was a painful treatment and continued into secondary school at the time of the offence.
“He was going back and forth to Glasgow with his mother and he missed a lot of school.”
He added that the teenager found it difficult to make friends because of the irregularity of his attendance.
Mr Dickson added: “His mother thinks it was a misguided effort to be the classroom joker – trying to curry favour with his peers.”
The lawyer said that when Lawless’s mother and his client saw the video, “she was distressed by it and he too became distressed viewing the video. If he could turn back the clock, he would. But none of this excuses what happened.”
Lawless will return for sentence on June 17 after a background report has been prepared.