Inverness teenager who kicked cat waits to learn his fate

A teenager who kicked a cat as the act was filmed on a mobile phone has to wait until next week for sentencing.

When 19-year-old Connor Lawless appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court, he was expected to be dealt with by Sheriff Robert Frazer.

But the sheriff was unavailable and Sheriff Margaret Neilson decided it would be more appropriate for him to deal with Lawless.

She deferred sentence to June 28.

The teenager had previously admitted a breach of the peace which would cause a reasonable person, fear, alarm or distress. Sentence was deferred for a background report which was available.

Sheriff Frazer, who declined to watch the video of the incident, told him on that occasion: “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.

Defence solicitor Marc Dickson said: “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.”