A teenager who killed a bus driver after he refused to let the drunken lout on board is back on the streets after less than 18 months.
The boy was detained in November 2024 after he ‘rained punches’ on Keith Rollinson at Elgin bus station in Moray in February of the same year.
Mr Rollinson, 58, died of a cardiac arrest after a frenzied attack by the drunken 15-year-old in February 2024.
The boy was sentenced to four years and four months after admitting culpable homicide.
He had initially been charged with murder. Due to his early guilty plea to the reduced charge, the boy, who cannot be named, had his sentence reduced from six years and six months.
However, due to the passing of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, the teenager did not spend a single night in prison. The act means youngsters are no longer sent to Young Offenders’ Institutions and are treated as children in care rather than offenders.
Mr Rollinson’s widow yesterday told Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay the boy had been released from a residential care facility. Mr Findlay said: ‘Sue Rollinson is understandably confused, angry and concerned about the release of her husband’s killer.
‘This case typifies the way in which decent Scots are treated with contempt by the SNP’s weak justice system.
Elgin bus station, where Keith Rollinson collapsed after being attacked. He later died in hospital
Keith Rollinson, an RAF veteran, died aged 58 from cardiac arrest after being assaulted by a drunken teen yob he stopped from boarding a bus
‘Having taken an innocent man’s life, this thug is back on the street yet hasn’t spent a single night in prison.
‘He will even qualify for a free bus pass because of the SNP’s pathetic inability to remove passes from those who attack bus drivers like Keith.’
During the boy’s trial in 2024, it emerged that the RAF veteran collapsed shortly after he was attacked and died in hospital.
The teenager had initially been ‘refused travel due to his intoxication’ by Mr Rollinson and reacted by punching him repeatedly on the head and body.
At the time Judge Lady Hood told the killer that she had no option but to lock him up.
She said: ‘You lost control and rained blows upon the victim. The physical altercation caused his death.’ Lady Hood said Mr Rollinson’s family ‘have been shattered by their loss’.
It came as it emerged more than 600 prisoners have been released early from Scotland’s jails since November under an emergency release programme designed to ease overcrowding.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: ‘We have been managing an extremely high and complex population for more than two years, which continues to place significant pressure on our staff and those in our care.
‘Since November, we have been delivering a programme of emergency early release in close collaboration with national and community partners, across justice, health, social work and other sectors.’