Trio sentenced over cliff plunge

The boy fell 25ft onto rocks in the Campsie Fells

Three teenagers who forced a 15-year-old boy off a cliff have each been sentenced to five years in a young offenders' institution.

Their victim suffered broken ankles in the attack in the Campsie Fells, East Dunbartonshire, in April 2003.

Craig Garlinge, 18, and Dean McGowan, 17, both from Milton of Campsie, and Craig Duncan, 16, from Kirkintilloch, were sentenced on Tuesday.

Judge Ian Simpson told the trio they had acted with "shocking brutality".

The High Court in Glasgow had previously heard that the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was struck repeatedly on the head and body with golf clubs by the three boys.

Witnesses heard them cheering as the boy fell 25ft onto rocks, where he was then pelted with stones, thrown by Duncan.

This was a pointless, unprovoked and cowardly attack on a young boy that could have killed him Judge Ian Simpson

The victim was hoisted back up the cliff by fire rescue officers and taken to hospital where he underwent surgery to put pins and a plate into his shattered ankles.

He was in plaster for two-and-a-half months and now walks with a permanent limp.

Sentencing the boys, Judge Simpson said: "This was a pointless, unprovoked and cowardly attack on a young boy that could have killed him and has left him with a permanent limp.

"You formed a pincer movment with Garlinge in front and the other two on either side, and forced him back towards the waterfall, the victim pleading with you to stop.

"It must have been obvious to you when you forced him back that he had nowhere to go. He fell 25ft, and you, Duncan threw stones at him as he lay there.

"It was a callous crime and you all acted with shocking brutality."

The court heard that the trio were among a group of boys who boarded a bus at Lennoxtown for a day out at a waterfall beauty spot in the Campsie Fells on 18 April last year.