Teenager cautioned after shining laser light at RAF rescue helicopter

A teenager playing with a laser pen cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds in RAF time and put a helicopter at potential risk, a court was told. The 14-year-old distracted a Sea King crew searching for a missing kayaker off the river Tees estuary by sweeping the sky in front of them with a narrow beam of green light. Teesside youth court heard that the pilots saw the lights as they came in low over Redcar last week, searching for distress signals or other signs of Shane Smith, whose kayak was later washed ashore empty. The 30-year-old from Seaham, county Durham, has not been found. Chris Atkinson, prosecuting, said that the laser light had been shone at the aircraft a second time as it tracked back down the coast. The crew, who had been scrambled from RAF Leconfield in east Yorkshire, helped police pinpoint the source of the beam and the boy was arrested. The court heard that the boy had been given the laser pen by his father a few days earlier and was shining it at the window of a neighbouring house, which deflected the beam into the sky. Amy Dixon said in mitigation that the boy knew he had done wrong but "did not mean to cause trouble and was just messing around". The teenager admitted directing or shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot. He was given a conditional discharge for 18 months and ordered to pay £50 compensation. John Miller, chair of the magistrates, told him that the money was "a drop in the bucket" compared to the costs he had caused. He said: "The implications do not bear thinking about.The delay in getting the aircraft to where it needed to be meant somebody's life could have been at risk. The pilot could have been blinded and it could have cause the helicopter to crash."