Man jailed for assault

A MAN who left his drinking buddy permanently scarred after hitting him with a vodka bottle in Stevenston has been jailed.

Taylor Gorman kicked his victim on the head after the bottle attack caused the other man to fall to the ground.

The incident happened in the town’s Glencairn Street on September 25 last year.

Gorman, 22, pleaded guilty at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to assaulting his victim to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

A sentencing hearing at the same court heard how Gorman and three others had been drinking alcohol in a property on Glencairn Street when Gorman got into an altercation with a male witness.

He smashed a bottle of vodka over the man’s head, and kicked him on the head after he fell to the ground.

The fiscal depute told the court that the two then rolled around on the floor, and said the argument had started after Gorman accused the man of having sexual relations with Gorman’s partner.

The court heard a female witness went across to the nearby JET petrol station for help, but staff would not let her in as her body and head were covered in blood.

Staff at the petrol station phoned the police, who arrived at the address and arrested Gorman for the assault.

Gorman suffered cuts to his hand, whilst the male witness had cuts to his arms, the back of his head and neck.

Gorman, described in court papers as a prisoner at HMP Kilmarnock, told the police that the male witness had assaulted him, and he then fell onto the vodka bottle, causing it to smash.

His lawyer told the court that a significant quantity of alcohol had been consumed during the afternoon, and that his client had already spent a considerable period in custody over the matter.

However, Sheriff Murdoch Mactaggart sentenced Gorman to 10 months in jail, saying that custody was “the only appropriate outcome”.

His sentence was backdated to February 13.