A teenager who was placed on the sex offenders’ register after he admitted stalking north-east paper girls has been spared jail.
Between the ages of 14 and 17, Ronald Wink stalked three secondary school girls as they carried out their daily paper rounds in the Garioch area of Aberdeenshire.
Wink would regularly creep around behind them, watching their every move, from behind bushes and walls.
And when the girls or their parents tried to approach or speak to him, he would run away.
Yesterday the 18-year-old appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced having previously admitted behaving in a way which would frighten and alarm his young victims.
However, Sheriff Annella Cowan criticised the Crown for bringing the case to court on indictment when she discovered Wink suffered from a severe learning disability and autism.
She said his behaviour should not have been seen as deviant given the similar ages of Wink and the complainers at the time.
She also said had “grave concerns” about the case and how she could appropriately dispose of it, given the young man struggled to understand why his behaviour was even wrong.
Speaking to the procurator fiscal, Anne MacDonald, Sheriff Cowan said: “What do you want me to do with him, lock him up for five years?
“The Crown has brought these charges against him, through the second highest court in the land, and what do you expect me to do?
“He won’t understand how to comply with any order and I think it’s completely unjust to set him up to fail.
“Do you expect his mother to handcuff herself to him and not let him out of her sight forever more or do you want me to lock him up, with the greatest respect to Mr Wink, for being a poor soul?”
Ms MacDonald said the Crown still considered its decision to prosecute to be a fair one given the distress he had caused his victims.
She also asked the sheriff to impose a sexual offences prevention order on him, however this was refused.
Sheriff Cowan placed Wink, of 80 Ladeside Gardens, Port Elphinstone, Inverurie, under supervision of the social work department for the next three years and ordered that he comply with and medical help he is offered.
He will also remain on the sex offenders’ register until the end of his period of supervision.