Mum's anger at 'joke' sentence as teen avoids jail for Edinburgh McDonald's attack
Police attended the scene and after viewing the restaurant’s CCTV Runciman
A teenager assaulted a 15-year-old schoolgirl unconscious and left her permanently scarred during a violent attack in a McDonald’s restaurant.
Lucy Runciman “body-slammed” the child to the floor where she cracked her head and repeatedly punched her as she lay out cold at the fast food eatery in Edinburgh’s city centre.
Runciman, 18, fled the premises following the violent unprovoked assault with the young victim left bleeding and “spasming” on the ground in June 2024.
McDonald’s staff members rushed to administer first aid to the girl before before she was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by her distressed mother who had been called to attend.
The police attended the scene and after viewing the restaurant’s CCTV Runciman, of the Capital’s Colinton Mains, was identified and later traced and arrested by officers.
The teenager, who just 16 when she carried out the attack, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement when she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year.
She returned to the dock for sentencing on Friday November 6 where Sheriff Fergus Thomson said it was “only a question of luck” the victim’s injuries were not more serious.
Sheriff Thomson said: “You pled guilty to this charge of assault at a trial diet in September.
“This is an extremely serious assault on a victim who you pushed to the ground and rendered her unconscious and repeatedly struck her to the head.
“The victim suffered significant swelling, bruising and lacerations and has been left with permanent scarring.”
The sheriff sentenced Runciman to an alternative to custody and placed her under the supervision of the social work department for 36 months.
She will also have to wear an electronic tag on her ankle and stay within her home between 9pm and 6am for the next 47 weeks.
The sheriff also issued a non-harassment order banning Runciman from approaching or contacting her victim for three years.
Speaking outside court the victim’s mother said she was disappointed in the outcome and described the sentence on Runciman as “a joke”.
Previously prosecutor Jennifer McLaren told the court the victim was sitting in the fast food restaurant at the city’s Princes Street when she was approached by Runciman at around 9pm on June 28, 2024.
Ms McLaren said: “The situation escalated and the accused forcibly body-slammed [the child] to the ground causing her to strike the rear of her head on the ground.
“The accused then proceeded to strike the seemingly unconscious [child] to the back of her head around three times.
“She then spun her round and punched her three times to the face.”
Ms McLaren played CCTV footage to the court that captured the moment Runciman carried out the shocking attack on her victim within the fast food restaurant.
The fiscal depute said the child had suffered “significant swelling” to her face along with heavy bruising and a cut to her eye and has been left with permanent scarring to her eye and nose.