A man who set fire to a garden with a petrol bomb has been sent to detention for 16 months.
Craig McTaggart appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing this week.
He had previously admitted a charge under the Explosive Substances Act and one of wilful fireraising.
The charges relate to an incident on October 12 2023 when McTaggart, who was then 19, threw a petrol bomb into the garden of an address at Spynie Place, Lossiemouth.
Moray petrol bomber’s explosives charge
The first charge details McTaggart’s possession of an “explosive substance” in the form of a petrol bomb, while the second regards that being thrown and causing the garden to catch fire.
Solicitor Robert Cruickshank, for McTaggart told the court his client was a young man – now only 20.
He said that while his client had been assessed as “maximum” in terms of risk and need this made him “ripe for assistance moving forward”.
The defence agent directed the Sheriff to an explanation of the crimes contained in the criminal justice social work report.
Mr Cruickhshank did not elaborate for the court, other than to say: “He acknowledges he was under the influence”
‘Shocking and frightening’
He said: “He takes full responsibility and doesn’t seek to use mental health and alcohol misuse as an excuse.
“He wishes he never acted in the way that he did.”
Mr Cruickshank told the sheriff that McTaggart had suffered a “significant tragedy” at the age of 16 which had left him “without a male role model”.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told McTaggart: “You accepted this behaviour, this dangerous behaviour, shocking, frightening – both offences of significant gravity.
“If you arm yourself with a homemade petrol bomb firstly, this is not spontaneous – this is planned and secondly you should expect jail.”
The sheriff said there was “no alternative” to a custodial sentence and handed McTaggart of MacDonald Drive, Lossiemouth, 16 months detention.
She told him: “If you had been over 25, that would have been a longer sentence.”