A thug who stomped on a man’s head so hard he left a shoe print on their face has been jailed for 27 months.
Christopher Sturrock ‘saw red’ before launching the attack in Inverness city centre, during which he attacked the ‘unconscious’ man with ‘considerable force’.
Sturrock was identified after a city centre shop worker photographed him in the moments after the brutal assault.
He appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court after previously admitted a charge of assault to injury and danger of life.
At an earlier hearing fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court it was about 9.05am on July 4 last year when Sturrock saw his victim and both began to struggle on the High Street in Inverness.
Assault victim knocked unconscious
Mrs Gair said Sturrock threw the man to the ground at which point “he hit his head on the concrete rendering him unconscious”.
“Then he stomped on his head with what appeared to be a degree of force,” the fiscal depute continued, adding: “Then he kicked him on the body.”
The court heard Sturrock fled the scene on his bike but a staff member from a local shop took his photograph, which enabled the police to trace and arrest him later in the day.
The injured man was taken to accident and emergency in Raigmore Hospital still unconscious.
Victim had shoe mark on face
“He had a shoe mark to the right side of his face,” Mrs Gair added.
Sturrock’s defence solicitor Willie Young said: “The cause of the ill feeling between him and the victim, who is no stranger to the court, was a complaint by my client about him but the Crown decided not to take any action.
“When he encountered him, he saw red, there was a brief verbal exchange which escalated into a struggle. My client pushed him to the ground and he struck his head.
“He is not particularly proud of the way he acted on that occasion.”
Jailing Sturrock, of Millerton Avenue, Inverness for 27 months, Sheriff Sara Matheson told him: “It was a serious assault involving stamping on your victim’s head while he lay unconscious on the ground with, what witnesses said, was some considerable force.”
