Woman who snatched girl avoids prison

A WOMAN, who began chatting to a father about his three-year-old daughter before running off with the child in her pushchair, avoided jail yesterday.

Zoey Dorris, 36, “struck up a rapport” with the man who was pushing his daughter along the pavement in Dunfermline. She complimented him on his daughter, and then made off down the street with the child.

Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard the incident was “clearly distressing” for the father, and “very distressing” for the three-year-old girl. Dorris was stopped and the child was returned to her father shortly afterwards.

Dorris, of Lauder Street, Dunfermline, admitted abducting a girl at West Baldridge Road, Dunfermline, on 19 August last year.

Solicitor-advocate Gordon Martin, defending, said Dorris was “clearly unwell” mentally at the time but had now improved. Sheriff Craig McSherry ordered her to carry out 100 hours of community service.