A self-professed Peterhead gangster will be sentenced next month after disfiguring a Buchan trawlerman in his own home.
Thomas Chesterton, 21, appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday after a jury had found him guilty of brandishing a knife and assault to severe injury and disfigurement in October.
His attack, which took place on June 4, left Fraserburgh fisherman Douglas McCulloch requiring surgery.
Before the case began, Chesterton had tried to plead guilty to the assault which the court heard was revenge for an attack that had left him with a chipped tooth.
Following the guilty verdict last month, however, Sheriff Andrew Miller called for a report on Chesterton’s personal circumstances before he would deliver a sentence.
Jurors had meanwhile acquitted a 27-year-old co-accused after they found it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that he had been involved in the assault.
But yesterday, the sheriff told Chesterton that his decision will be further deferred until December while he waits for a further report on his character.
Chesterton, who appeared from custody, has a long history of violence.
In December last year, he was involved in a fracas at Peterhead Community Hospital during which he threatened to shoot police officers.
During the incident Chesterton described himself as a gangster and Peterhead’s “main man”.
He was ordered to do 45 hours of unpaid work as part of a three-month community service order.
In 2012, Chesterton – then 19 – was locked up for attacking a man with a pool cue at Aberdeen’s Regent Court.
His victim was left with red welts on his back and shoulders as a result of the attack. Chesterton was sentenced to four months’ detention.
A year earlier, he appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted breaking a curfew order and attacking two men at the city’s Promenade Court.