A teenager blindly threw a paving stone off the roof of Aberdeen’s St Nicholas Centre without even checking if anyone was walking below.
The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons due to his age, chucked the heavy slab while he was out socialising with a group of friends.
He also kicked and punched a CCTV camera as he was being watched on a different surveillance camera by police.
The boy, who stood out wearing his brightly coloured jacket, was swiftly arrested by officers.
He pled guilty to culpable and reckless conduct and vandalism at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
‘Accused seen to throw it over his head’
Fiscal depute Anne MacDonald said the incident happened around 11pm on October 10 last year.
“The accused was among a group of youths seen by police CCTV operators to be congregating on the top deck of the St Nicholas Centre.”
Ms MacDonald said the boy was wearing a brightly coloured jacket while the other four in the group were in dark clothing.
“The accused was seen to pick up a loose paving stone and throw it over his head, over a railing and down onto the pavement below.
“Fortunately, nobody was walking on the pavement otherwise it would have had very serious consequences,” Ms MacDonald added.
“The accused had not checked before he threw the paving stone.”
He started to ‘punch and kick’ CCTV camera
The fiscal estimated the height at which the paving slab was thrown to be around 10-12ft.
She went on: “He then turned his attention to one of the CCTV cameras and started to punch and kick it and ended up damaging it.
“Police were watching all this intently and the accused was quite easily spotted.”
A value for the repair work that was required was not available for the court.
The teenager, whose address was given as the Dundee area, will be sentenced next month.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge deferred punishing him to allow time for the production of reports.
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