A VALE teen responsible for a string of unprovoked assaults on total strangers has been warned he faces a lengthy spell in custody if he doesn’t change his ways.

Steven McSporran assaulted shop workers in Jamestown and Balloch, attacked people in the street and in Balloch Park, and even grabbed his own mother by the neck.

The 18-year-old, of Shearer Quadrant, Alexandria, was warned by Sheriff Frances McCartney to take a look at other older criminals passing through the building as a sign of where he was heading.

McSporran, appeared on four separate complaints at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on December 18 detailing a string of offences committed over almost a year.

On April 19, 2019, at Balloch Park, while acting with others, he assaulted a man, running at him, repeatedly punching him on the head and striking his legs, causing him to fall to the ground, and repeatedly kicking him on the head and body to his injury.

The same day, he assaulted an employee of the Co-op in Carrochan Road, Balloch by repeatedly striking him with a shopping trolley.

One day later he repeatedly punched a man on the head in Balloch Road, causing him to fall to the ground, and headbutted him to his injury. In Tullichewan Road, he acted in an aggressive manner and shouted and swore.

Then on February 8 this year, at the Yummy Takeaway, in Main Street, Jamestown, he spat at an employee.

And on March 1, he assaulted his mother by seizing her by the neck. He also repeatedly shouted, swore, caused damage to a kitchen drawer, acted in an aggressive manner and took a knife and held it towards another woman.

Sheriff McCartney said: “It reads as someone who just doesn’t have any sense and someone who may be going in and out of court for the rest of his life.

“It might be the social work department views they can’t help Mr McSporran.

“He is on the cusp of detention for a long time.”

McSporran’s solicitor said: “He has some support, but the support is not great. There’s a recognition that the way he was living cannot continue.

“He is effectively trying to remain out of trouble.”

Sheriff McCartney asked McSporran if he understood how serious his position was.

“Take a look at people in their 40s and 50s still in court,” she said.

“It starts with you.”

She made McSporran the subject of four separate bail orders for the offences as an “incentive” to stay out of trouble.

Telling him to return to court on January 19, she added: “You must not put your relationship with your mum at risk.”