A garage manager has been found guilty of horrific racist harassment and bullying of a teenage apprentice – including setting fire to his head.
Tony Jolly, who was a manager at Halfords McConechy’s in Altens at the time, was slammed by a sheriff over his barbaric treatment of a 17-year-old apprentice.
Now 18, the teenager, who was born in Poland, was subjected to disturbing abuse, including taunts of a racial nature.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the bullying came to a disturbing climax when his manager Jolly sprayed an aerosol into his face and lit it, endangering his life.
Following a trial, jurors took around two hours to reach guilty verdicts on all three charges against Jolly, who had pled not guilty.
Between October 1 2022 and February 17 2023 at the Souter Head Road presmises, Jolly pursued a racially aggravated course of conduct which amounted to harassment of the teenager.
He repeatedly acted in a threatening and abusive manner towards him, swore at him and made derogatory and racist comments to him.
The jury found Jolly unanimously guilty of that charge.
He was also found guilty, by majority, of assaulting the young apprentice by spraying a flammable liquid onto his shoe, applying a naked flame and setting his trousers alight, to the danger of the teen’s life.
Jolly was unanimously found guilty of the most horrific assault on the teen, which took place on February 17 2023.
On that occasion, Jolly sprayed a flammable liquid onto his head and lit it, causing his head to be set alight to his injury and to the danger of his life.
Following the return of the guilty verdicts, defence agent Neil McRobert asked for sentence to be deferred for background reports.
Sheriff Ian Wallace agreed.
Addressing Jolly directly, the sheriff said: “You were employed as a manager to develop and protect the staff in your workplace.
“You engaged in racist harassment and bullying.
‘His position is he did not know anyone was coming along corridor’
“It’s difficult to understand what possessed you to act in that way and it’s pure luck your victim was not more seriously injured.”
He deferred sentence on Jolly, of Wallfield Crescent, Aberdeen, until next month.
Halfords McConenchy’s declined to comment on the case, other than to confirm Jolly was dismissed shortly after the incident.
During the trial, in his closing speech to the jury, Mr McRobert said: “Mr Jolly does accept he was using the spray to clean the whiteboard and lit the spray in the doorway area.
“His position is that he did not know that anyone was coming along the corridor.
“He accepted this was a reckless act, but not an intentional act.”
But fiscal depute Rebecca Thomson, in her speech, asked jurors: “Why would you spray a gas canister, at head height, into an empty hallway?”
She also put it to the jury that the teenager was “partly targeted because he was Polish and because he was an apprentice”.
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