News / Three months to go straight
ONE of Shetland’s most prolific young offenders has been given three months to prove he can stay out of trouble and avoid a jail sentence.
At Lerwick Sheriff Court Sheriff Philip Mann told 21 year old Trevor Couper, of 37 Cairnfield Road, Lerwick, that he had a list of convictions he would normally see for someone twice his age.
On Thursday he pled guilty to assaulting his girlfriend by repeatedly pushing her and throwing her to the ground at her Lerwick home on 20 July.
He also admitted breaching a bail condition that he not contact her by sending text messages and meeting up at her home on 6 August.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court it would be difficult to find someone in Shetland who had breached bail as many times as Couper, who has already served a three month prison sentence this year.
But defence agent Tommy Allan said Couper had “turned a corner” after being given a talking to by Sheriff Mann on his last appearance in court in October.
Since then he had avoided trouble, stopped drinking and lined up an apprenticeship in joinery and plumbing with a Lerwick firm starting next week, Allan said.
The lawyer added that Couper’s serial offending only started when he lost an apprenticeship after the firm he worked for “went under” a few years ago.
“The indication is that when he’s in employment he behaves better,” he said.
“There is enough ammunition here to give him a custodial sentence, however he does seem genuinely to have taken to heart what your lordship has said.”
The sheriff told Couper he was not convinced a prison sentence would do any good, before deferring sentence for three months for him to be of good behaviour.
“You are only 21 and you have a list of previous convictions I normally see for someone twice your age, so it’s grow up and get on with it,” he said.
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