A man who carried out a bizarre assault on two children was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay each of his victims £250 compensation.
In what was described as “a moment of madness”, drunken Ben McFarlane grabbed a nine-year-old boy in the street and hoisted him into the air. The youngster had just left a cinema when McFarlane approached and grabbed him from behind.
The city’s sheriff court was told that the child had been so frightened he had urinated.
A second youngster was also distressed when he, too, was grabbed by the 21-year-old in North Methven Street on January 4.
The second child was only released when family members challenged McFarlane, who then stumbled off into a taxi.
The court heard that the accused, who works on a farm in Sierra Leone, had just days before returned to Scotland for a break and had been out drinking with friends.
McFarlane, of Cleeve Drive, Perth, admitted the assaults on the two boys.
Sheriff Fiona Tait was told that a community disposal requiring him to remain in Scotland could cost him his employment in Africa.
That being the case, she agreed to impose the stern financial penalty, and ordered McFarlane to pay each of his young victims £250 in compensation, in addition to the sizeable fine.