Ciaran Bainbridge, 17, spared jail over armed raid
A student who admitted carrying out an armed robbery in West Dunbartonshire has been given a community sentence.
Ciaran Bainbridge, 17, used a fake Glock semi-automatic pistol to steal £130 from Farooq Newsagents, Clydebank, on 11 November last year.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard how he had psychological issues relating to his dying grandmother and father who had taken his own life in 2009.
Bainbridge was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
Under the terms of the community payback order, he was also ordered to be supervised for two years.
The court heard how Bainbridge walked in to the newsagent on a Sunday morning, brandishing his model Glock, wrapped in a white plastic bag, and demanded cash.
Police called to the scene found him lying in undergrowth in a nearby church-yard.
Bainbridge tried to escape, jumping a fence and running along a railway line.
Police shouted to him and he lay down and was led away in handcuffs.
Firearms experts said the pistol was capable of firing plastic ball-bearings and looked "fairly realistic".
At an earlier hearing Lord Uist refused to sentence Bainbridge until a clinical psychologist had been given a chance to discover a motive for the raid.
The court heard that Bainbridge had been badly affected by the suicide of his dad in 2009.
He saw his terminally-ill grandmother as a last link with his father.
Lord Uist noted she was "on the point of death" when Bainbridge took his pistol and carried out the robbery.
Sentencing him, the judge told Bainbridge: "I am told you could no longer bear the stress you were suffering.
"You took this drastic action to draw attention to the difficulties you were facing."
The judge added: "I regard this as a quite exceptional case. The commission of this crime was completely out of character for you."