Six teenagers who caused a serious disturbance in a Black Isle fishing village will be sentenced next month.
Five of the youngsters admitted their role in the fracas last April, and a sixth was found guilty after trial yesterday.
Tyler Christie, 16, of Bank Cottage, Avoch, was found guilty of obstructing and hindering police in the course of their duty and trying to pull apprentice joiner Liam Fraser, 16, from the grip of Constable Carl Sandever.
Christie claimed he had simply questioned the police about the arrest of two of his pals and helped one of them get more comfortable as he sat handcuffed on the ground.
Fraser of 15 Diriebught Court, Inverness told the court yesterday that Christie didn’t try to pull him away from the police as Constable Sandever and Sgt Calum Reid had claimed.
“The handcuffs were so tight that my hand went numb. I told Tyler and asked him if he would help to lift me up to make me more comfortable.”
He denied a suggestion by fiscal depute Ross Carvel that he was “telling lies to protect his friend”.
Summing up, defence lawyer Pauline Chapman told the sheriff: “He was naively trying to help his friend who was in pain and sitting in the ground.
“He was asking questions of the police about his friend’s human rights and why his friend was being arrested. It may have been irritating to the police, but it is not a crime.”
The trial had been told that the two police officers were outnumbered, had to send for reinforcements and had threatened to use CS spray on the teenagers if they didn’t stop interfering with the arrest of their friends on April 8.
Sgt Reid’s patrol vehicle had been flagged down by Fraser and 17-year-old Connor Etheridge, of 4 Station Road, Avoch, to admit an assault on a man at his home in the village.
Fraser, who admitted assaulting Mr Green, smashing his window and resisting arrest by struggling, told them they had arrested the wrong person in Connor’s twin brother, Kyle.
Both Fraser and Etheridge were then arrested and handcuffed before Christie, Ross Clark and Kyle Grzesinski arrived.
Sgt Reid said this caused Fraser and Etheridge to “go berserk”.
Clark, 19, of 3 Toll Road, Avoch, admitted behaving in a threatening manner and Grzesinski, 18, of 7 Castle Heather Road, Inverness, pleaded guilty to spitting at both police officers and assaulting Constable Sandever by pushing him in the back.
Connor Etheridge admitted resisting arrest and Kyle admitted assaulting Mr Green.
All six will be sentenced on August 20.