DAD’S DEATH BY WHEELIE BIN
Thug threw it at him and caused fatal head injury
A VIOLENT drunk killed a 39-year-old dad by hurling a wheelie bin at him and causing him to fall and hit his head.
Stephen Robbins, 34, attacked Ryan Barrie on March 1 after Ryan shouted at him for making noise outside his Dundee home at 1am. Both men had been drinking. Ryan went out to confront Robbins despite being urged to stay inside and Robbins punched him repeatedly, pushed him into a bush then got on top of him and punched him in the head.
Ryan did not retaliate at that point and told Robbins he did not want to fight. But as he tried to get up, Robbins threw the empty blue bin at him.
Prosecutor Leanne Cross told the High Court in Edinburgh: “The wheelie bin landed on the deceased’s back. It caused him to fall forward and hit his head off a wooden beam which was part of a fence.”
Robbins fled and Ryan was helped back inside. He said his head was really sore but he did not want to go to hospital and fell asleep. He never regained consciousness. Paramedics could not revive him.
A post mortem revealed a haemorrhage inside his skull.
Jobless Robbins, who has previous convictions for assault, told police Ryan had punched him first and he had thrown the bin to try to get away. He was charged with murder but prosecutors yesterday accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
Ryan left a son, a former partner, a brother and sister.
Lady Scott deferred sentence on Robbins, a prisoner at Perth, until January 6 in Glasgow so a background report could be prepared.