A 68-year-old man struck a friend over the head with a whisky bottle after an argument over the pensioner trying to go home with it.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that William Friel, of 68 Ashton Road, Inverness, had mistakenly picked up the item thinking it was one of his bottles of wine at a drinking get-together in a house in Mackintosh Road, Inverness.
But Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood was told that one of the guests, Robert Taylor, spotted Friel’s error, there was a struggle and he ended up with wounds requiring 12 stitches.
Yesterday, Friel admitted assaulting Mr Taylor to his injury on November 16, 2014.
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told the court: “The house has a reputation of being a drinking den. Friel had arrived with several bottles of wine and after a considerable amount of alcohol was consumed, he went to leave and took with him a bottle of whisky by mistake instead of one of his bottles of wine.
“Mr Taylor was unhappy about this and there was a brief struggle which during which Friel’s glasses were broken when he was struck in the face.
“The incident ended with Friel striking Taylor on the head with the whisky bottle which broke, injuring him. Taylor refused an ambulance and went home.”
Mr Urquhart said Taylor went to hospital later that night under the influence of alcohol and was treated for lacerations to his forehead and the top of his head.
Taylor then reported the matter to the police later that day.
“Friel was arrested by police on the morning of November 18 but was not sober enough to be interviewed immediately. He later told police: ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
Sentence was deferred until January 12 for a background report and defence lawyer Marc Dickson reserved his comments until then.