The girl in question was 12 years old when she invited the 17-year-old victim into a flat in Craigneuk. They consumed alcohol however the situation changed after the older girl answered a phone call from police. 

The 13-year-old along with a 15-year-old accomplice punched the girl repeatedly and locked her in a bedroom. The girl fell from the first-floor window flat and suffered a broken pelvis and wrist. 

Both accused pled not guilty to the charges and the matter went to trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court. Both were found guilty by the jury of assault. 

The victim told that court that she was attacked before she fell from the window. She explained: “I was in the toilet and the older girl came running in and grabbed my hair and I was also getting kicked in the stomach by the younger girl. I then got shoved up to the window. My full head was out of the window and I kept on shutting my eyes because I was scared and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was crying and asking for them to stop and that I was sorry because I thought it would make them stop.”

The girl spent three weeks in hospital and had an operation of her pelvis. In convicting both accused the jury deleted from the charge that the girls had pushed or forced their victim out of the window causing her severe injury and to the danger of her life.

During the trial the 13-year-old also pled guilty to assaulting three members of the public on a train between Motherwell and Wishaw. Both girls admitted breach of the peace charges on the same train. 

Sheriff Martin Jones QC deferred sentence in order to obtain a Criminal Justice Social Work Report. The Sheriff continued both girls bail in the meantime.