Double assault brute is jailed

A Hole hills brute who sickeningly assaulted two people before challenging cops to a fight at University Hospital Monklands will spend the next four months behind bars.

Anthony Hornal seized a woman by the body, threw her to the ground and kicked her on the body during a violent attack at a property in Mavisbank Street, Whinhall.

He also repeatedly punched a man on the body and “repeatedly” tried to punch him on the head when the double assault took place on July 8.

Hornal, 28, was later taken to University Hospital Monklands ’A & E department, where he began shouting and swearing – placing others around him in “a state of fear and alarm”– before uttering threats and challenging police officers to fight with him.

He was placed under arrest and entered a guilty plea to the three offences at Airdrie Sheriff Court.

Hornal, who lives in Ferguson Way, resurfaced in the dock for sentencing last week after background reports were compiled.

Defence solicitor John McGeechan pleaded for “a non-custodial sentence” for his client, claiming he was “suitable for supervision”.

But Sheriff Frank Pieri was in no mood to sentence Hornal to anything other than jail time.

The sheriff told Hornal: “On charge two [female assault], you will be sentenced to four months [in prison]; and on charges three and five [male assault, hospital conduct] it will also be four months [in prison].

“These sentences will be served concurrently for a total of four months and I have reduced it from six months due to your plea [of guilt].”

When his time in prison ends, Hornal will be subject to supervision after he was also sentenced for a further disturbing incident – which included another assault and “brandishing a scooter”– during his date in the dock last week.

Hornal tried to strike another man on the head in a house on Airdrie’s Innes Court on August 20 last year.

During the same incident, Hornal also entered the property uninvited and refused to leave, repeatedly struck the front door, shouted and swore, issued threats and brandished a scooter.

He admitted both charges and Sheriff Pieri placed him under a community payback order with supervision for the next year as “a direct alternative to custody”.