A disturbance in an Inverness block of flats led to police following a trail of blood to one of the participants.
Yesterday at the city’s Sheriff Court, 26-year-old Kyle Brandie was sentenced to 45 hours of unpaid community work after he admitted assaulting Reece Irwin, 20, to his injury.
But fiscal depute Ross Carvel accepted that the offence was committed under provocation.
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald was told that Brandie, of Souters Avenue, Nairn, was in the Mackintosh Road flat of his girlfriend at the time on September 20 last year.
Irwin arrived with a friend and there was an altercation, resulting in the police being called.
As they arrived, officers saw Brandie, who admitted previous convictions, punch Irwin on the head and retreat into another property.
Irwin was left with a cut cheek and a swollen face, Mr Carswell added.
He went on: “Police followed the trail of blood and found Brandie with blood on his knuckles.”
Defence solicitor Graham Mann said the victim had been in previously been in a relationship with the woman and turned up at her flat with another man and both were “under the influence of something.”
Mr Mann added: “He was agitated that my client was present and there was a disturbance.”