A pensioner who hit a baby bird so hard with a golf umbrella that it had to be put down has been fined £600.

William McMahon, 67, of Kirkcaldy, grabbed the makeshift weapon when he spotted the herring gull in his garden in Kirkcaldy. He leaned over a fence to batter the chick after it ran into the garden next door to his home in July last year. He denied intentionally or recklessly injuring the bird but was found guilty and was fined at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.