Football coach jailed for attack outside pub

Victim suffered fractured jaw and cardiac arrest after assault by Kirkcaldy man

An amateur football coach who viciously assaulted a 60-year-old man outside a pub has been jailed for two years.

Grant Gay broke Lawrence Wallace’s jaw after hitting him with a single punch in an attack on Tolbooth Street, Kirkcaldy, on March 20 2015.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Gay and his wife, Ashley, had been at the town’s Wheatsheaf Bar drinking cider and trying to raise cash for his football team, Kingdom Athletic.

The couple left and went home but Gay said he was going back to the pub after leaving a score sheet there.

Mrs Gay told the court that she told her husband that she thought she had seen Mr Wallace make a rude hand gesture.

The court heard that Gay then caught up with Mr Wallace and punched him.

The attack was captured on CCTV and paramedics were called.

When medical staff arrived, they found that Mr Wallace had fractured his jaw and had suffered a cardiac arrest. He later died in hospital. The court also heard that Mr Wallace had significant health issues which could have resulted in him collapsing and death.

Gay, of Kirkcaldy, originally stood trial in March 2017 at the High Court in Edinburgh on a culpable homicide charge.

Jurors acquitted him on the charge of killing Mr Wallace but convicted him on a charge of assaulting the man to his severe injury.

Yesterday, judge John Morris QC told Gay that a prison sentence was the only disposal available to him.