An 80-year-old man left a professional boxer scarred for life after a vicious assault outside an Aberdeen bar.
OAP Andrew Wilson slashed his victim across the face with a nail after becoming annoyed while watching the “significantly younger” man performing karaoke, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
The attack, which happened outside Wagley’s on Exchange Street, left the boxer with a 7cm gash across his cheek.
Fiscal depute Christy Ward said: “The complainer was taking part in karaoke in Wagley’s. The accused became agitated and aggressive towards the complainer. It is unclear why.
“Wilson was persuaded to leave the premises by friends.
“Around the same time the complainer was outside smoking a cigarette.
“At one point there was a physical struggle between the accused and the complainer initiated by the accused.
“During the course of the struggle the accused struck the complainer on the head with some kind of bladed article. The article was never recovered.
“The accused then walked away.”
Ms Ward said the incident, on June 7 2019, was not immediately reported to police, and that the victim attended hospital at around 11pm after a friend saw the injury to his cheek. Police met him at the hospital.
The fiscal told the court: “The complainer sustained a laceration to his cheek approximately 7cm long. It was closed with sutures. The injury will leave a permanent scar.”
Wilson was traced, cautioned and arrested in the early hours of June 8. During interview he admitted being in a “fight” with the complainer and denied carrying any weapons.
Wilson pled guilty to a charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement by struggling with his victim and striking him on the head with a “blade or similar implement”.
Defence agent Ian Woodward-Nutt told the court the item used had been a nail, which his client had had in his pocket in connection with his work in demolition.
The solicitor said he had been of the view that the nail would be classed as a “similar implement”, but Sheriff William Summers said he did not agree.
Mr Woodward-Nutt also said his client’s position was that the incident started when the complainer had grabbed Wilson’s arm as he walked out of the pub, and that it was not initiated by the pensioner as stated in the Crown narrative.
He went on to say his client, who works in the demolition trade but had not been working pending the outcome of the case, had been of good behaviour since the incident.
The solicitor said: “The background to the offence is that Mr Wilson had been out socialising. He’d met his partner who worked as a barmaid at the Spirit Level.
“It transpires that the complainer had been in that bar and had been involved in a violent altercation with other patrons and staff members.
“The complainer was ejected from the Spirit Level and some time after that the accused, together with his partner, left and went to Wagley’s.
“When they went there the complainer was either there when they arrived or arrived soon after.
“The complainer confronted the accused and his group. He recognised my client’s partner as having worked in the other bar.
“There was an angry confrontation between the complainer and Mr Wilson.
“In short, it’s Mr Wilson’s position that both he and the complainer were asked to leave Wagley’s.
“Mr Wilson’s position is, as he was leaving, the complainer grabbed him by the arm.
“My client says they were pushing each other.
“The complainer was significantly younger than the accused and was of much larger stature.
“The complainer stated to Mr Wilson that he was a professional boxer.
“At that point, unfortunately, while he accepts he should have walked away, Mr Wilson reacted by producing a nail that he had in his pocket and striking the complainer across the face with it.”
Mr Woodward-Nutt added Wilson had shown a “suitable level of remorse”, and that the assault was “spur of the moment”.
Sheriff Summers said there were too many discrepancies between the Crown’s narrative of events and Mr Woodward-Nutt’s plea of mitigation and so fixed a date for a proof of mitigation hearing, similar to a trial.
The hearing was fixed for next month and Wilson, of Pittodrie Street, Aberdeen, had his bail continued in the meantime.
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