A TEENAGER has narrowly avoided jail after he admitted a string of offences across North Ayrshire, including assaulting a man with a plank of wood.  David Campbell, 17, who is now living in Victoria House, Irvine, appeared from custody at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court after he was remanded following a breach of his curfew.  The court heard how he faced five charges including behaving in a threatening manner at the Quarriers Hostel in Saltcoats where he previously stayed, by ringing the buzzer but he was denied entrance due to being drunk and he began to shout “f*****g dafties” and “f*****g idiots at the staff.  He was told to go back when he was sober before the police were called but he continued to shout.

This charge occurred on June 10 of this year and the following day he was also charged with setting fire to a bin within the hostel in Green Street, Saltcoats.  Previous to this, Campbell had been charged with assaulting two men in Largs in September of last year.  The court heard of a report from one of the residents in Charles Street in Largs of people sleeping in the front garden.

Campbell said to someone who questioned him that his girlfriend was drunk and she needed to sleep.  A man in attendance said that an ambulance was required and that he was worried about the female before putting her into the recovery position.

The man remained with her before police were contacted despite Campbell not wanting this to happen.

The two men were looking over the wall at the incident and Campbell took exception to this.

He picked up and threw bricks at one man before picking up a piece of wood and hitting another man on the leg.  He was restrained until police arrived and was restrained and handcuffed but not charged at the time due to his drunken state.  He was also charged with damaging a number of cars in Chapelwell Street and Vernon Street in Saltcoats by kicking a wing mirror off one car and smashing the rear windscreen of another.  The damages were noted to be in the region of £250.  Sheriff Livingston said at this point: “The damage could be quite a bit more but Autoglass or whoever fixed this would have covered it through excess.”  David McPherson, defending, said that his client pled guilty to all charges straight away apart from one.

He said: “Alcohol played a part in all the events and Mr Campbell has very little recollection.

"He is 17 but is starting to accrue a lengthy record.” Sheriff Livingston stated that he was going to impose a community payback order on one charge and defer sentence on the others and said to Mr McPherson that if client offends again, he would be getting detention.

He said: “This is a last chance saloon and it’s time your client grew up.” Campbell was ordered to carry out 150 hours of work in the community within nine months and was given two years supervision by the social work department.  He is also to have regular reviews, the first of which being at the end of August.