Blowtorch attack on schoolgirls

A DRUG user who terrorised teenage school pupils with a blowtorch in Edinburgh was confronted by a man armed only with his walking stick.

Richard Slight left one girl thinking she was going to die after she felt the heat of the torch and thought she was on fire.

The victim ran across a busy Sighthill road, avoiding traffic as she went, as she tried to escape her armed pursuer.

But after attacking the 15-year-old girl, Slight then confronted a motorist and pointed the gas gun through the open driver's window.

Flames shot out of it and Steven Ramsay, 52, had to throw himself onto the passenger side of his car to avoid them.

Slight, 21, made off after the attack but Mr Ramsay was left feeling "enraged", the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

Advocate depute Alison Di Rollo said: "He was so incensed and concerned about the danger the accused represented to others he decided to search for him in his car."

He eventually found Slight outside a chip shop in Calder Road.

The prosecutor said: "Carrying his walking stick to protect himself he got out of his car and walked towards the accused and confronted him. He was asking him what his game was and why he had done what he had done."

But Slight pointed the blowtorch at Mr Ramsay and fired it again before running off.

Ms Di Rollo said: "Mr Ramsay returned to his car and continued to search for the accused, determined to catch him and prevent him using the blowtorch on anyone else."

He cut off Slight with his car and managed to grab a hold of him and took the blowtorch from him.

The advocate depute said Slight's mother appeared on the scene and said: "Please don't hit him, he's high on drugs and sniffing gas."

Police had been alerted to a man in possession of a flame thrower and officers found Slight in Sighthill Avenue, in Edinburgh, and after a chase caught him in a garden and restrained him.

Ms Di Rollo told the court: "This was an extremely frightening course of conduct involving the use of a blowtorch which was lit and used as a weapon."

She said: "It must be regarded as fortunate that no serious injury was sustained, but that was not as a result of the actions of the accused."

Slight, described as a prisoner, admitted committing a breach of the peace at an underpass at Calder Road on January 22 this year by chasing three 15-year-old schoolpupils and repeatedly brandishing the blowtorch.

He also admitted assaulting one girl by pursuing her and pointing the ignited torch at her back.

He also admitted assaulting Mr Ramsay with the weapon on the same day and resisting police.

He committed the crimes after having been freed on bail by a sheriff in Edinburgh on October 2 last year.

The judge, Lord Uist, told him: "You have pled guilty to a series of offences which involve extremely bizarre behaviour which constituted a danger to the public."

He called for a risk-assessment report and a psychiatric report before sentencing Slight and ordered he be remanded in custody.

Defence solicitor advocate Richard Goddard said Slight was "heavily under the influence of drugs at the time".