A mugger who was too high to remember stealing money and beer from his victim during a vicious street attack has been jailed for more than three years.
Charles Sim pounced on the 62-year-old man, who was walking home from the supermarket in Aberdeen’s Woodside area, during the early evening of June 18 last year.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Sim, 38, pushed the man to the ground, repeatedly kicked him on his body, punched him on the head and repeatedly threatened to stab him unless he handed over his mobile phone.
Victim screamed for help
When the man refused Sim searched his pockets and continued to kick him in the back, only stopping when his victim began screaming for help.
Sim then made off with his rucksack, containing two cans of beer, and £10.
Fiscal depute Lynzi Souter said Sim had originally approached the man, on Tanfield Walk, to ask for some tobacco. His victim checked his backpack for some, but didn’t have any so repacked his shopping and began to head off.
It was then that Sim pushed him face down into the street and began his nasty attack.
His victim was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment to a laceration on his eyebrow and Sim later joined him there as officers were concerned about how intoxicated he was.
‘No recollection of the incident’
Defence agent Tony Burgess said that Sim, a father-of-one and stepdad-to-six, felt “genuine remorse and regret”.
“He had found himself under the influence of a substantial amount of drugs, hence why he has no recollection of the incident,” he said.
“He was resolute that it was not him and he had convinced himself that he would not do this.
“He is deeply ashamed at the losses that have occurred for him but in particular the distress that must have been caused to the complainer.”
‘A reprehensive assault’
Sim appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court via video link from HMP Grampian and admitted assault and robbery as well as a further charge of spitting on a police officer while being held in custody at Kittybrewster in the days that followed.
Sheriff Philip Mann called it a “reprehensive assault on an elderly gentleman” and said given Sim’s “very serious record” there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.
He sentenced him to 39 months, backdated to June 2020.