A man who battered his friend black and blue during a vicious late-night attack at a Deeside caravan park has avoided a prison sentence.
Peter Gribble, 43, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted a charge of assaulting his pal of more than 20 years at Ballater Caravan Site.
The court was told when police arrived on the scene, both men were drunk and denied that there had been an altercation – but they had been spotted fighting by another witness.
Officers also found the victim’s blood in the doorway of Gribble’s caravan.
Gribble returned twice to assault friend
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court that at around 2am on March 13 2022, a man staying at a neighbouring caravan woke to raised voices outside.
Upon looking out of the window, the man saw Gribble and another man arguing.
The two men then began wrestling each other and when the other man fell to the ground Gribble punched him repeatedly with his right hand for around 20 seconds.
Gribble walked away for a moment before coming back and continuing to repeatedly punch the complainer whilst he was on the ground.
He walked off once more, but returned and began attacking the man for a third time.
The man in the neighbouring caravan contacted the police and the site warden.
When he returned to the window, the injured man was on his feet and speaking to Gribble.
He then threw a punch at Gribble, who stepped out of the way.
When the site warder and police arrived Gribble’s friend had a significant head injury and was claiming he “fell over”.
However, Gribble told the police that his friend had attacked him and that he had been defending himself.
One of the officers went into Gribble’s caravan and found blood at the door but nothing else inside.
When questioned about this, Gribble claimed that the complainer had made “such a mess” and that he had cleaned it up before police arrived.
It was also stated that both men were heavily intoxicated and largely incoherent.
Later, it was discovered that Gribble had himself made a 999 call, during which he claimed he had been attacked and that the other man had “spewed all over and gone mental”.
Gribble was arrested while his friend was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
He had two black eyes, a large soft tissue hematoma to the right side of his head and a large amount of swelling to his face and ear.
A scan revealed that he had a fractured cheekbone that later required surgery.
In the dock, Gribble pleaded guilty to one charge of assault to severe injury.
‘It shows a pattern of behaviour’
Defence solicitor Gregor Kelly told the court that Gribble considered the incident a “matter of great regret” and that the men’s two-decade-long friendship “ended in this manner”.
“He accepts his conduct and is not proud of what he has done – he doesn’t seek to get away from that,” Mr Kelly said.
“Clearly, alcohol was very much flowing that night for both men – Mr Gribble asks the court to accept that his actions were largely out of character.”
Mr Kelly added that Gribble – who runs his own cleaning business – had a previous assault conviction on his record but that his actions that night were to his “extreme regret”.
Sheriff Gareth Jones told Gribble that he had carried out a “serious offence that had resulted in fairly substantial injuries to someone who was a friend”.
He added: “You have recently been convicted of an analogous conviction and it shows a pattern of behaviour.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Jones made Gribble, of Hollybush Lane, Crathes, to a community payback order with supervision for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work.
He also ordered Gribble to pay his victim £1,000 in compensation.
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