A teenager who spat on a bus driver and mocked a wheelchair user with one leg has avoided jail at Inverness Sheriff Court.
McKenzie Cochrane assaulted the female Stagecoach employee after being challenged over his lack of a ticket for the bus in Inverness.
On a separate occasion, he made fun of a wheelchair user with one leg outside Raigmore Hospital and became aggressive towards him.
He also assaulted a worker at a city betting shop, throwing food at him and kicking him.
Cochrane, 18, appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously admitted charges of assault and threatening or abusive behaviour.
Fiscal depute David Morton said it was around 10.20pm on June 8 last year that Cochrane was one of a group of males who boarded the number three bus at Falcon Square in Inverness.
He said: “[The bus driver] noticed that Mr Cochrane had walked past her without showing any form of ticket or pass.
“She walked to the back of the bus, challenged him and required him to leave the bus.”
Teen’s spitting assault on Stagecoach worker
Mr Morton told Sheriff Neil Wilson that Cochrane “took exception to this” and spat twice at the driver.
“On each occasion, the spittle connected with her right cheek,” he said.
Cochrane then left the bus and police were contacted.
On August 13, a wheelchair user with one leg was approached by Cochrane outside the main entrance of Raigmore Hospital.
After engaging the man in conversation, Cochrane began to laugh and make fun of the fact that he was a “one-legged” man, before becoming aggressive when the man reacted by flicking ash from a cigarette in his direction.
On February 2, Cochrane and two women tried to enter the William Hill bookmakers in Inverness, as an employee was closing up.
They were asked to leave, but ignored the request, and Cochrane threw food at the worker before kicking him.
Again, police were called.
Drinking ‘underpins’ offending
Solicitor Clare Russell, for Cochrane, said that drinking “does seem to underpin the behaviour” but told Sheriff Neil Wilson this was not an excuse.
She said her client had been making good progress with a supervision order and electronic monitoring imposed in the interim,
Sheriff Wilson told Cochrane: “You spat on a bus driver, I would be perfectly entitled to send you to prison for that.”
He instead placed the teenager, of Old Perth Road, Inverness, on a community payback order with a year’s supervision and 165 hours of upaid work in the community.
But he warned him: “If you don’t comply […] I suspect that is where it will end up.”