Goldfish thief-update

[Nwicker60]

Accused is 'thoroughly ashamed' of his conduct

THE teenager who grabbed a couple of a Caithness school's goldfish and flushed them down the loo, was simply bored, Wick Sheriff Court heard yesterday.
Kevan Fraser, of 52 Glamis Road, Wick, entered Lybster village’s primary school on October 21, last year, while the building was closed for the weekend.
The bizarre incident was discovered when the janitor reported for duty on Monday morning. Suspicion fell on the 17-year-old who had been seen in the vicinity of the school.
David Barclay, prosecuting, commented: “One view might be that there are more serious crimes...unless you are one of the goldfish, of course.” Fraser admitted a charge of theft.
Solicitor Neil Wilson poured cold water on the possibility that the accused had thought the fish might have made their way to the sea, saying that he would obviously not have appreciated workings of the sewerage system.
Mr Wilson added: “I don’t think they would have escaped with their lives.”
Commenting on a background report before the court, he said that it conveyed the impression of a young man wandering around with “nothing good to do with his time” .
The accused was thoroughly "ashamed and embarrassed" by his conduct and Mr Wilson added: “He could use help to find something to do with his life.”
Sheriff Andrew Berry said that according to the report, Fraser had been in Lybster, bored and with nothing to do and seemed to have tried to make things “more odd”.
The sheriff referred to a statement the accused had made to the police in which he said he had been engaging in a recreational activity of “running, jumping and clambering about”, in Lybster, shortly before he entered the school.
Sheriff Berrry remarked: “I find it extraordinary."
Fraser's unpaid must be completed within six months and he will be under supervision up to a year. The goldfish escapade breached a good behaviour bond imposed on the accused, on an unrelated matter, last year and the court will consider that in April.