A Tain man who assaulted his girlfriend’s dad in “revenge” for an earlier headbutt and smashed window has admitted he did it under provocation.
Benn Joy repeatedly punched his victim to the head, causing him to fall to the ground and leaving him with a cut above his eye.
Tain Sheriff Court heard that the assault took place following an earlier altercation between the two men.
Joy, 27, appeared before Sheriff Neil Wilson to enter a plea of guilty under provocation to the assault.
Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that, prior to the incident, Joy and his victim had been at a property in Viewfield Road when a “dispute or disagreement” occurred.
But it was shortly after midnight in Cromartie Gardens when the assault took place.
‘A coming together’
He said neighbours noticed a “coming together” between the pair during which Joy punched the other man “repeatedly” to the face.
This caused the man to fall to the ground, after which “the punches continued for a short time”.
Mr Morton said witnesses described “a number of punches” being delivered before the men were separated and Joy ran off.
The victim was left with a bleeding laceration above his left eyebrow and police and ambulance crew were called to the scene. No substantial medical treatment was needed.
Solicitor Rory Gowans, for Joy, said that his client and his partner had been watching television at her address earlier that night when her father had arrived.
He was allowed in, but then headbutted Joy, leading to a brief “scuffle” after which Joy left.
He later received a phone call from his girlfriend warning that her father was coming to his address.
“He became aware of the sound of breaking glass,” Mr Gowan’s said, before he spotted his victim had a baseball bat.
‘He overstepped the mark’
His hackles were already up,” Mr Gowan’s told Sheriff Wilson, before explaining that his client initially incapacitated his victim before landing further blows as “revenge”.
“What he should have done was go back into the house and phone the police,” Mr Gowans conceded, adding: “He accepts that he overstepped the mark.”
Fining him £520, Sheriff Wilson told Joy, of Cromartie Gardens, Tain: “You stepped over the mark in your response and carried out an assault.”