A man who headbutted a barmaid at a Culloden pub has been jailed for eight months.
Shaun McGeough attacked the woman after she asked him to leave the Blacksmiths Sports Bar, leaving her with pain and bruising.
McGeough also assaulted a male employee who asked his friend to leave the premises.
McGeough, 32, appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously admitted committing two assaults at the Keppoch Road premises on January 6 of last year.
Fiscal depute Victoria Silver told the court that McGeough and a female friend had arrived at the bar at around 9pm and had been drinking throughout the evening.
Pub drinker was ‘in a heightened state’
She said: “At 11.45pm the accused was still within the locus and described as being ‘in a heightened state’.”
As a result of this, a female member of the bar staff approached McGeough and asked him to leave.
“The accused has refused to do so,” Ms Silver told Sheriff Sara Matheson.
McGeough did eventually exit the bar, after being asked “several times” but “immediately returned” before being asked to leave again.
It was at this point that the woman “ushered” McGeough from the premises.
“On exiting the accused has drawn back his head and headbutted her to the face,” said Ms Silver, adding that the woman had suffered pain and bruising as a result, including to her upper arm where McGeough subsequently grabbed her.
The court heard that it was around midnight when a male member of staff asked McGeough’s female friend to leave the premises “given the disturbance that had been caused by the accused”.
McGeough took offence to the man speaking to his female friend and put his forehead against the man’s, “forcefully” pushing and causing the man to stagger back.
The staff members then went inside the pub and contacted police, while McGeough and the woman left in a taxi.
Inverness pub attacker ‘genuinely remorseful’
Solicitor Graham Mann, for McGeough, said that his client had been drinking on the night in question and had taken too much alcohol.
He said McGeough had “expressed shock” and was “surprised” by his behaviour, for which he was “genuinely remorseful”.
He said: “He accepts responsibility for the commission of these two offences”.
Mr Mann added that McGeough had wanted to apologise to his victims and said: “He accepts they were simply doing their job.”
He asked Sheriff  Sara Matheson to consider a non-custodial disposal for his client, who has previous convictions.
But Sheriff Matheson told McGeough: “In my view, we have reached the end of the road for you.”
She said: “This was a particularly nasty offence committed against a bar worker in the course of their employment.”
She said any sentence needed to demonstrate that “such behaviour in public houses is not acceptable”.
Sheriff Matheson jailed McGeough for eight months.