A Peterhead man who lost his temper and left his fleeing neighbour with a permanent scar has been fined.
The town’s sheriff court heard that Dylan Richards and his neighbour had gotten into several disagreements over stolen mail and loud music before he took the law into his own hands and attacked him in a lane in the port.
The 32-year-old, whose address was given as the Caley Building, had gone out to confront the other man on December 15 last year before things turned violent.
Chased him down and wounded him
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin told the court the incident happened at about 11.10am when Richards spotted his neighbour walking out of his home.
“The accused opened the door and began speaking to the complainer,” she said.
“The complainer ignored him.”
Richards then chased the man into Farmer’s Lane, near the building, which was a dead end.
In an attempt to escape the confrontation, his victim tried to scale a metal-spiked fence.
“The complainer shouted for help and for the accused to stop,” Ms Martin added.
But Richards continued to pursue the man and pulled him down, leading to his neighbour cutting both hands. He suffered a 3cm laceration to his right palm, which doctors said would leave a permanent scar, and a 1cm cut on his left palm.
Ms Martin said: “Upon seeing this, the accused walk away.”
When Richards was spoken to by police, he replied: “Yeah, I did do that. I hold my hands up to that. I lost my temper.”
‘A nightmare neighbour’
In mitigation, Richards’ defence solicitor Marieanne Milligan described the victim in the case as a “nightmare neighbour” and detailed how he would play loud music and steal mail from her client.
“He is a nightmare neighbour, my lord,” she said.
“He has asked him in the past to not take parcels from his front door, not play loud music.
“He accepts full responsibility in relation to this matter.”
She added that although Richards had previous convictions, the last of those came in 2019.
Dealing with the case, Sheriff Robert McDonald told Richards to pay a £500 fine.