Work order for man who hid teenager

A MAN who hid a vulnerable teenage fugitive for two days has been ordered by a court to carry out unpaid work.

Andrew Pender, 28, was ordered to do 135 hours of labour under a 12-month community payback order. He was also put under social work supervision for a year.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that the 14-year-old girl he harboured was at “high risk of exploitation and moral corruption”.

The teen and two friends, aged 13 and 14, had absconded from a residential school in Central Scotland.

Pender, of Bathgate, West Lothian, pleaded guilty to knowingly harbouring or concealing a child at his home between September 18 and 20, 2011, in circumstances which would have rendered the youngster liable to arrest.

The Crown accepted his denial of two similar charges involving the other girls.