Man sent to jail for battering pal after ‘unsavoury incident’

Aman repeatedly stamped on his friend’s head after he and his partner turned down the victim’s suggestion of group sex.

Iain Connell was kicked unconscious after being thrown out of the couple’s home for making unwanted sexual advances during a drinking session.

A neighbour recorded the horrific assault on her mobile phone until she was eventually heard screaming at Craig Stirling to stop kicking Mr Connell.

She shouted: “That’s enough Craig. He’s killing him, he’s killing him. He’s murdering him.”

Stirling, 43, gasped in horror as the video of his attack was played in court, shortly before he was jailed for two years by Sheriff Alistair Carmichael at Dundee.

Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan said: “Iain Connell and the accused were old friends who had known each other for six or seven years, and they had a chance meeting when the accused was with his partner.

“He was invited back to their flat and they consumed alcohol. Mr Connell began acting in an inappropriate manner and was told to leave.

“He was in the street, shouting up. A witness looked out and began filming . T he y saw the accused exit the block of flats. He approached and a stand-up fight ensued.

“Both threw punches at each other. The accused punched Mr Connell repeatedly causing him to fall to the ground.

“As he lay on the ground, he kicked him, punched him and repeatedly stamped on his head.”

The victim was found lying in a pool of blood and had a badly broken nose which required surgery to straighten.

Stirling was arrested and told police: “He was making sexual advances. It was self-defence. Honestly, it was self-defence.”

Stirling, from Arbroath, admitting assaulting Mr Connell to his severe injury and scarring him for life in the town’s West Abbey Street on September 16 last year.

He admitted pushing him to the ground, punching him on the head and body and rendering him unconscious by repeatedly stamping on his head.

Solicitor

Jim

Caird, defending, told the court: “He is utterly shocked and devastated by his behaviour. He has been a good friend of the complainer.

“In fact he was being a Good Samaritan. Mr Connell had fallen out with his partner and didn’t have any means and Mr Stirling and his partner provided food and – unfortunately – drink.

“They took him into their home. There was an unsavoury incident in the house and there was a scuffle between them. He was put out of the house.”

Sheriff Carmichael said: “The level of violence you showed here was high. You have no control when you kick someone on the ground.

“It is a recipe for disaster and it is down to fortune and not much else that the most serious injury was a broken nose. I take into account that there had been an unsavoury incident.”

It is down to fortune... that the most serious injury was a broken nose