A man has been fined after using his stomach as a weapon to assault a police officer during a disturbance outside an Aberdeen address.
Liam Ritchie twice struck an officer to the chest using his stomach during the bizarre incident on Earns Heugh Circle.
The 33-year-old also grabbed the officer’s wrists during his very physical protest about the police’s handling of an unrelated matter.
Ritchie previously pled guilty to assaulting a police officer in the incident, which happened on August 1 last year, but has now appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced.
Fiscal depute Alan Townsend previously told the court the incident happened during the afternoon of August 1 at Earns Heugh Circle in Aberdeen.
Liam Ritchie took hold of the officer’s wrists and refused to let go
He said: “During this particular afternoon, officers attended in relation to an unrelated matter.
“On their departure, the accused, apparently dissatisfied with the handling of the situation, followed them outside and proceeded to strike the constable to his chest using his stomach, causing him to stumble into a nearby parked car.”
Ritchie then “took hold” of the officer’s wrists and “refused to let go”.
The fiscal depute went on: “The constable managed to relieve himself of the accused’s grip, but the accused again struck him with his stomach and took hold of his wrists again.”
After being arrested, Ritchie pulled and struggled and eventually had to be restrained on the ground.
‘Certainly not proud of himself’
Defence agent Iain McGregor said the incident happened after Ritchie had phoned the police himself during a row with his partner.
The solicitor said that officers had instructed his partner to leave the address as a result, despite it being her property, and Ritchie had taken issue with this.
Mr McGregor said Ritchie “overreacted” and that alcohol “played a part” in the offence.
He added: “He effectively bumped himself off the constable who, unfortunately, stumbled back into a vehicle.
“Before that, Mr Ritchie should have absented himself from the whole scene.”
The solicitor concluded by saying the first-offender was “certainly not proud of himself”.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge told Ritchie, of Cairnhill Drive, Newtonhill: “You realise by now you should never have initiated this confrontation with the police.”
She ordered him to pay a fine of £290.
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