An Edinburgh teenager who admitted firing at children with a BB gun has had his sentencing delayed for seven months because he is going to Fiji on a gap year holiday.
Jack Hewitt, 17, fired at primary school children, aged between eight and ten and one girl was struck on the forehead and another was hit just below the eye.
Others had red marks and bruising on their arms, legs, stomach and heads.
Hewitt, who pleaded guilty to the shooting, had his sentencing adjourned in January so he could complete his Scottish Higher exams, and today at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Isobel McColl delayed it until February 2015.
The Scottish Conservatives Party’s justice spokeswoman, Margaret Mitchell MSP, said: ‘This latest deferral sends out completely the wrong message.
‘The public will be mystified and alarmed that there has still not been an official sentence handed down for the crime committed.
‘The parents of children who suffered as a result of this incident will also rightly be angered by a further delay.
‘Rather than allowing a gap year holiday in Fiji, the Criminal Justice System should be dealing with this case, as opposed to bending over backwards to accommodate the perpetrator.’
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
