A man who was drunk in charge of a young child claimed he was using whisky to treat his “excruciating” toothache.
Duncan Brown said he did not swallow the strong alcohol, spitting it out after holding it against his tooth.
However two witnesses said he had been swaying, slurring his speech and was smelling strongly of alcohol.
The pair became concerned after noticing a five-year-old boy who was playing close to the edge of the River Tay and immediately called the police.
Jane Scott and her friend were walking their dogs at the North Inch when she spotted Brown and the boy standing on the viewing platform on the river bank.
The 38-year-old said: “The dogs went over and were running around them. He started swearing and I thought he might be drunk.
“He turned round and I saw he had a bottle of whisky. He was swaying and had slurred speech.
“The boy was running around and was standing at the River Tay, where there was no barrier to stop him falling in.
“I was scared that he’d fall into the Tay – it was fast flowing and it would have been so easy for him to fall.”
She said she had called the police while her friend, who knew the young boy, tried to keep him away from the river.
However Brown refuted the women’s version of events, saying he could not have been drunk as he had recently finished his shift at SSE.
He said he had been self-treating a toothache by holding whisky on it, which would account for the smell of alcohol and his slurred speech.
The 41-year-old said: “Anyone who knows SSE knows that if you were drinking alcohol you would have been sent home, and probably sacked.
“I had toothache on the left side – It was excruciating. It had been going on for two weeks but I couldn’t take time off work.
“I was holding whisky to my tooth for as long as I could and then spitting it out. It would have been disgusting to swallow it when it had been on my tooth for five minutes.”
He said he had lost his job after spending the weekend in the cells after being arrested, rejecting fiscal depute Tina Dickie’s suggestion that it was due to a drink problem.
Brown added that following the incident he had undergone two hours of root canal surgery.
However at Perth Sheriff Court Sheriff Lindsay Foulis convicted Brown of wilfully neglecting the child in a manner likely to cause him suffering or harm by consuming so much alcohol that he was incapable of looking after him.
Brown had no control over the boy and allowed him play beside the River Tay, which at the time was fast flowing.
The offence took place on the North Inch on April 23.
Sentence on Brown, of St Catherine’s Road, Perth, was deferred until August for reports.
