Four-month tag for Brechin man after football night brawl

A Brechin man has been given a four-month restriction of liberty order for his part in a brawl involving rival factions from two Angus towns.

Callum Anderson’s electronic tag will keep him curfewed to his home between 8pm and 5am on a daily basis after he was involved in a fight in Montrose on June 25.

Anderson, 20, of Dundas Park, previously admitted assaulting two men in what the court heard was the aftermath of a football night out that led to alcohol-fuelled trouble between groups from Brechin and Montrose.

Some of the Brechin party had been involved in an altercation around 2am before going to a house in Montrose’s Gibson Place where Anderson then got involved, delivering a single punch in two separate assaults.

Defending, Ian Flynn said: “There had been a previous altercation in the street and there had been some running at Mr Anderson, but inside the flat no one was running at him and he should never have been there in the first place.

“It was an evening out for a football team, there was a fracas between other persons, not involving Mr Anderson and at the time there was an element of seeking retribution and going to the flat where they knew the men were.”

“He is in full-time employment and he is also engaged, which seems to settle some young men down.”

Sheriff Alison Mckay said the accused was in a serious position because of a previous community payback order imposed for another assault, for which the court heard 40 hours of unpaid work are still to be completed.

“He is halfway through a period of supervision for a serious assault and he gets involved in another fracas,” said the sheriff.

She told Anderson: “This is the stage when you have to realise that when you have a criminal record it comes before the court every time.”

A co-accused Paul Gerrard, 31, of Montrose Street, Brechin, was previously fined £300 and ordered to pay £450 compensation to a woman who suffered two broken fingers in the incident.