Joyrider detained for seven years

to 80mph was ordered to be detained for seven years yesterday.

Lord Ross, the Lord Justice Clerk, told Stephen McGuire, who committed

the offences when he was just 15, that the public must be protected from

his ''quite intolerable'' behaviour.

McGuire was convicted of two sets of offences, both involving stolen

vehicles.

Mr Iain Bonomy QC, Advocate-depute, told the High Court in Edinburgh,

that McGuire, of Linthaugh Road, Pollok, Glasgow, reset a Rover which

had been stolen in Glasgow in December 1993.

A 42-year-old company director, Mr Donald Findlay, returned to his

parked car in Kensington Gate, Glasgow, to find McGuire sitting in the

driver's seat.

He was with another juvenile whom Mr Findlay grabbed by the scruff of

the neck. As McGuire got out of the car and into the Rover the juvenile

called out to him to ''cosh'' Mr Findlay.

McGuire drove the Rover towards Mr Findlay, pinning him by the legs to

the side of his own car.

Mr Findlay was taken to hospital suffering from extensive bruising and

ligament damage to both knees and was on crutches for two weeks.

Mr Bonomy said the second set of offences involved the accused's

23-year-old cousin, James McGuire, of Fernbank Street, Springburn,

Glasgow.

A Mitsubishi Shogun four-wheel-drivewas stolen on May 25 this year and

was seen on the M8 motorway the following evening.

Miss Sarah Osborne, 22, was driving near the Hillington slipway when

the Shogun pulled alongside her with Stephen at the wheel.

James was in the front passenger seat and leaned out of the window

brandishing a metal bar. He also pulled his finger across his throat in

a threatening gesture.

The Shogun carried on to a McDonald's drive-through restaurant in

Springburn Road, where two teenagers in the car park had taken an

interest in the vehicle.

James leaped out and chased one of them with an axe he had taken from

the Shogun. While the youth sheltered in the doorway of the restaurant,

James got back into the vehicle and Stephen drove off at high speed.

Police traced the Shogun, later that night, to a disused farm at

Robroyston.

Two constables, Patrick Cloherty and Brian Gallagher, got out of their

car and walked towards the vehicle. They were about 10 feet away when it

accelerated towards them.

Mr Bonomy said both officers had to jump out of the way.

A high-speed chase followed in which Stephen McGuire drove through

busy streets at up to 80 mph, through red lights, on the wrong side of

the road, round roundabouts the wrong way, weaving in and out of traffic

and causing other cars to swerve to avoid being hit.

The sheriff who had remitted the case to the High Court because he

felt his maximum sentencing power of three years was inadequate had seen

the high-speed chase on a police video and described the driving as

''horrifying''.

Mr William Thom, defence counsel for Stephen McGuire, said his client

was a young man with a very unhappy background.

He described the ''sad state of affairs'' in which McGuire had been

known to the social work department from the age of eight and offending

since 1992 when he had been generally out of control.

Mr Paul Burns, solicitor advocate, for James, said his client played

the minor role in the incidents involving the Shogun.

Lord Ross sentenced Stephen McGuire to seven years' detention and

banned him from driving for 10 years.

The judge jailed James for nine months.