A man who hit a partygoer on the head with a bottle of Buckfast has been jailed for a year.
Ryan Simpson, 24, was no longer welcome at a house party when he tried to return uninvited on February 10 this year.
But when another guest remonstrated with him, he grabbed a bottle of Buckfast and hit the man on the head with it.
Appearing from custody via video link, Simpson pled guilty to a single charge of assault to injury at Inverness Sheriff Court today.
Fiscal depute Allison Young told the court that at around 8.20pm on the day in question, Simpson had entered the address, in Bellfield Invergordon, uninvited, at which point a man had gone over to speak with him.
‘Words were exchanged’
Words were exchanged between the pair and the accused picked up the bottle and struck the man across the head with it.
A second man then intervened before Simpson ran away from the property and into a waiting taxi.
Police were later called by the mother of the victim, who had minor injuries and was checked at Raigmore Hospital before being discharged without further treatment.
Solicitor Graham Mann, for Simpson, said his client had been drinking before the incident and, at some point in the evening, “he was no longer welcome”.
He said that prior to the assault there had been an “exchange of words” after which his client had used the bottle to strike the man.
“It was an impulsive reaction,” he added.
He told the court that the time in custody since the incident had allowed his client, previously of Mackay Road, Inverness, to identify issues with his use of alcohol and mental health, for which he was now receiving support.
Handing down the 12-month sentence and backdating it to February 11, Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said: “Given your record a custodial sentence is inevitable.”