A teenager who killed a bus driver after he refused to let the drunken lout on board has been locked up for four years.

The now-16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ‘rained punches’ on Keith Rollinson at Elgin bus station in Moray on February 2.

The High Court in Inverness yesterday heard how the 58-year-old RAF veteran collapsed shortly after he was attacked and later died in hospital.

Judge Lady Hood told the killer, who was only 15 at the time of the assault, that she had no option but to lock him up. She said: ‘You completely lost control and rained blows upon the victim.

‘The physical altercation caused his death and the harm you caused is at the highest level. Detention is the only appropriate sentence in this case.’

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Lady Hood cited statements from Mr Rollinson’s family which described him as ‘a true gentleman with a heart of gold and a wonderful husband and father’.

She said the family ‘have been shattered by their loss’ and added: ‘No sentence I can pass will ever be enough to help his family with their devastating loss.’

Lady Hood ordered the teenager to be detained for four years and four months, reduced from six years and six months due to his early guilty plea.

The teenager was initially charged with murder but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide.