LONDON (Reuters) - Two Scottish teenage boys escaped a jail sentence for breaking into the tomb of one of Scotland's most violent noblemen and taking a skull to use as a ventriloquist's dummy.

Sonny Devlin, 17, and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, were put on probation for three and two years respectively under the ancient crime of "violation of sepulchre" -- the first such trial for over a century, newspapers said on Saturday.

Last June, the boys broke into the mausoleum of Sir George "Bloody" MacKenzie, a senior official of Charles II who died in 1691. He earned his nickname for his zealous persecution of Presbyterians.

The court heard the crime was motivated by "immature and drunken bravado more than anything sinister." The boys were accused of stealing the unidentified skull, using it "like a glove puppet" and then throwing it away.