A Rosyth man fired an air weapon through a window and came close to hitting a neighbour and his young daughter in their garden.

Dylan De Ridder, 25, of Peasehill Fauld, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing.

He admitted that on March 18 last year at his home he recklessly discharged an air weapon - understood to be an 'airsoft' weapon, similar to a BB gun, firing plastic pellets - and carelessly fired it out of a ground floor window to the danger of a man and his young daughter.

Depute fiscal Azrah Yousaf said the neighbour had seen De Ridder putting a shooting target up on a garden fence.

Later, the man was in his garden with his 10-year-old daughter when they “heard a whizzing noise”.

A pellet had just missed them fired by De Ridder, added the depute.

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said his client had fired the air weapon in his home and had not realised the pellet had gone through an open window.

“This was foolishness not malice. He’s extremely remorseful,” he added.

Sheriff Gordon Liddle told De Ridder: “This was a dangerous thing to do. If someone was hit in the eye they could have been blinded.”

He imposed a community payback order with 120 hours of unpaid work and the air weapon was forfeited.