Brutal Buckie bottle assault
A youth has been spared custody after a brutal bottle attack in Uddingston which left another teenager fighting for life.
The victim, aged 17, was stabbed on the arm and the glass severed an artery, causing massive blood loss.
He was rushed to hospital where a surgeon performed a three-hour-long life-saving operation.
A 17-year-old male, who is too young to be named, was convicted of assaulting the teenager to the danger of his life at Porterswell Park, Uddingston, on June 8 last year.
The accused was only 16 at the time of the attack.
He was also found guilty of hitting another boy on the head with the bottle, causing it to smash.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard violence flared when two groups clashed near the River Clyde, a short walk from 13th century Bothwell Castle.
Witnesses told how three boys on each side traded punches before the accused, who was holding a Buckfast bottle, ran up and hit one of the protagonists with the bottle before stabbing another youth with the broken glass.
Vascular surgeon Dr Alex Vesey operated on the stabbing victim at East Kilbride’s Hairmyres Hospital.
He told Liza Lann, prosecuting:“this was a major injury to the main artery in the forearm. Notes record blood was spurting from the artery.
“It was a life-threatening emergency.”
Dr Vesey said he picked out fragments of green glass from the “deep, incised wound”.
The patient needed three pints of blood and the wound was repaired with around 50 stitches.
Dr Vesey warned the victim is unlikely to have full power in his arm as a result of the injury and could require further surgery many years down the line. He will be scarred for life.
Witnesses rejected defence claims that the accused was attacked by two youths and pinned to the ground.
Lawyer Jackson Bateman insisted his client lashed out with the bottle in self-defence.
He suggested the witnesses had turned on the accused because, unlike them, he was not from Uddingston or Bothwell but lived in the east end of Glasgow.
After studying background reports, Sheriff Thomas Millar said a period of supervision was required for the youth and remitted the case to the children’s panel.