BA pilot and his girlfriend hurt in Fringe bar brawl
A BRITISH Airways pilot was attacked and his trainee pilot girlfriend left with facial fractures in a mass brawl at the Edinburgh Festival.
Alex Beech, 26, was allegedly punched in the face by Ryan Ross in a row over a friend’s smashed glasses, a court heard.
But Mr Beech’s girlfriend Katie Maclennan suffered multiple fractures after she was dragged to the ground and kicked and punched during the violent brawl last year.
Ross, 23, and his friends are alleged to have become involved in a fist fight with Mr Beech and his group at a festival pop-up bar in the city’s Cowgate area.
Miss Maclennan said she had attempted to break up the fight but was grabbed by the hair by an unknown female.
She claimed she was then punched and kicked by Ross as she lay on the floor of the packed Cow Shed pub. Covered in blood, she was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where it was found she had a broken eye-socket and multiple fractures. She later underwent surgery and had two metal plates inserted in her right cheek.
Miss Maclennan, who is studying at Pathway Pilot Training in Rosyth, Fife, also had three back teeth kicked out and says she continues to suffer numbness to her face 12 months later.
Ross, from Swanston, Edinburgh, denies assaulting Miss Maclennan by repeatedly striking and kicking her on the head to her severe injury and permanent impairment. On Monday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Miss Maclennan told the jury she had moved to the city from her home in Salisbury, Wiltshire, two days before the attack took place around 11pm on August 9 last year.
The 24-year-old said she had been out enjoying the festival with Mr Beech and others when the altercation broke out. Yesterday Mr Beech, who lives in Edinburgh but is originally from Oxford, told the court he did not see his girlfriend being kicked in the face – but he had ‘no doubt the man in the dock was the man who punched’ her.
The trial continues.