A former primary school teacher has been warned he is on the brink of prison after being convicted of attacking a child for the second time in two years.
Alan Norris was ordered to carry out unpaid community work as a direct alternative to imprisonment for kicking a teenage girl and throwing a metal dumbbell at her.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahoney told Norris: “In 2017, you were convicted of assault in relation to a child and now it has happened again.
“Should you be found guilty of a further assault, particularly one involving someone considerably younger than you, then the prospect of losing your liberty would be extremely high.”
Sheriff O’Mahoney ordered Norris to do 200 hours community payback when he appeared at Perth Sheriff Court.
The 49-year-old admitted assaulting the 14-year-old girl in Birnam, Perthshire, on May 13 this year by seizing hold of her body and pushing her to the floor.
He then kicked her on the body before picking up a metal dumbbell and throwing it at her. The weight struck her on the body as she was lying on the ground.
Norris had been a teacher at Craigie Primary School in Perth until he was suspended and then sacked in the wake of the first assault.
In that case, the same court heard last year how Norris assaulted the boy in a row over the way he was cutting an apple.
Norris admitted assaulting a child by grabbing him and dragging him across the floor in March 2017.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis admonished him, but Norris was subsequently removed from teaching after a hearing at the General Teaching Council.
