By Campbell Thomas
A FARMER who detained a teenager after suffering a catalogue of vandalism on his property has been cleared of assault.
David Rennie, 66, performed a citizen’s arrest on the 15-year-old and called police after youths broke into a disused building.
Mr Rennie, who is also a member of the Scottish Fencing Veterans Team, handed the boy over to officers.
He was charged after the youngsters claimed he punched the boy after forcing his arm up his back.
The boy, who cannot be identified, and three friends ripped off sheeting covering a broken window and climbed into the disused Crookedholm nursery school near Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
The boy told the town’s sheriff court: “One of my friends said, ‘There’s someone in here’ but I didn’t believe him.
“But then I was grabbed by the neck, shoved against a wall and hit twice in the face by a man with grey hair who put my arm up my back and took me to another room.”
The youngster said Mr Rennie told him to call his mother on his mobile and tell her he was being held in the building.
“The man phoned for the police but I was in a lot of pain because he was putting my arm up my back pretty far,” he added.
“Every time I tried to move he made it tighter.
“He spoke to my mum and told her, ‘He’s broken into the nursery’”.
The boy insisted he had been punched but Brian Holliman, defence solicitor, said: “That was a lie to try and get yourself out of trouble.”
One of his friends, 14, told the court he had seen the alleged victim forced to the ground, which did not feature in any police statements.
Giving evidence in his own defence, Mr Rennie described spending three hours boarding up the building earlier that day after intruders broke in, only for it to happen yet again.
“I had already phoned the police the previous night but it took them an hour to get here,” he said.
“Previously, the police caught one youth going over the railings but didn’t charge him as he wasn’t on the premises.”
Claire McEvinney, prosecuting, suggested Mr Rennie had lost his temper and attacked the boy, adding: “Maybe you saw red.”
But Mr Rennie denied this and insisted: “The police were already on their way and had already told me, ‘Let us deal with all situations’.
“I wouldn’t say I was hurting the boy and he accepted he was caught red-handed. I phoned my voicemail to record the whole incident but unfortunately I didn’t save that evidence within 20 days, otherwise this would not have come to court.
“I’ve had about 36 windows broken in total so one more wasn’t going to upset me any more.
“The biggest damage was seven years ago, when someone tried to set fire to the building.”
Sheriff Shirley Foran found the case against Mr Rennie not proven after his trial last Wednesday.
She said: “I think it’s likely that something happened and that the boy may well have been alarmed but I can’t be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that it was an assault.”
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