An Inverness man who stamped on the head of another man has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that James Mackay, a prisoner, had reacted under severe provocation and had already served the equivalent of a nine-month sentence in custody.
He admitted assaulting Benjamin Drummond to his injury by knocking him to the ground, rendering him unconscious, punching and stamping on his head as he lay on the ground.
The incident happened in Lombard Street on June 14.
Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif told Sheriff Margaret Neilson his client had been “severely provoked.”
Although Mr Latif did not go into detail in open court, he said that Mackay had suffered two traumatic events in his life which were canvassed in the psychological and background reports, and Drummond had made a comment about one of them.
“He has been diagnosed as having the highest category of post traumatic stress and it was a spontaneous reaction to an intolerable piece of provocation.
“Sending him to prison will not cure his underlying demons.”
Ordering Mackay to be under social work supervision for 18 months and undertake drug, alcohol and offender awareness programmes, the Sheriff told him: “Ordinarily an offence such as this would attract a custodial sentence.
“But because of the high degree of provocation, and the fact you have served the equivalent of a nine month sentence, I can impose a non custodial sentence.”
Offenders usually have to serve only half their sentence before they are released early. If they re-offend, they can be recalled to complete their sentence.
