Unpaid community work for violent teenager

A teenager who carried out a number of violent assaults has been ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work.

Trevor Couper, 19, of Mossbank, was also told to pay a total of £575 in compensation to his victims and placed under supervision for three years when he appeared for sentence at Lerwick Sheriff Court today.

Couper previously admitted four charges of assault to injury – two of them while on bail. He has already served the equivalent of a nine month prison sentence after being held on remand.

The attacks took place on 10th March at Lerwick’s Garthspool and at Sandside in Mossbank on 20th May.

Couper admitted acting with another in three of the assaults.

In respect of the other, he acted with co-accused Ryan Williamson, 21, of Sandside in Mossbank. Williamson, for his part, was fined £340 for one of the Mossbank incidents. He was also told to cough up £100 in compensation.

Couper had also admitted being under the influence of alcohol in Commercial Street on 18th May, breaching bail and breaking a curfew order.

Sentence had been deferred for background reports to be compiled.

Defence agent Kiedra Morrison said drink had been the catalyst behind Couper’s offending, adding he had never come to the attention of the police during periods of “total sobriety”.

Sheriff Valerie Johnston said Couper was “spiralling out of control”. She noted he had spent 136 days in custody, but warned he could end up back in prison if he continued to drink.