Man fined £900 for club headbutt assault

A young man who butted a stranger on a Perth nightclub dancefloor found himself in hospital after cutting his head open on his victim’s baseball cap.

Daniel Ferguson had to have the wound to his forehead glued shut at Perth Royal Infirmary after his ill-advised assault.

The drunken attack took place at The Loft in the city’s South Street after a night of drinking.

It began with an apparently accidental collision on the dancefloor and saw the pair square up to each other while being encouraged by other patrons.

Perth Sheriff Court heard his victim may then have attempted to defuse the situation by offering a handshake, only for Ferguson to misunderstand the sudden movement.

The 23-year-old lunged across the floor and butted the man who was felled by the impact, prompting security staff to intervene.

His victim was left “light-headed and dizzy” and club staff called the police. When officers arrived moments later, it had become clear Ferguson had sustained the more serious injury and they were forced to take him to seek medical assistance.

Ferguson, of Caledonian Road Perth, subsequently admitted assaulting a man by butting him to the head at The Loft on November 12 last year.

Solicitor David Holmes said his client had been assaulted not long before the incident, which led to him taking pre-emptive action to protect himself.

“He had been the victim of an assault previously and felt threatened and vulnerable,” the agent said.

“He knows that he was early into the fray and that his response to what was going on was excessive.”

Mr Holmes said his client had never before been in trouble and regretted what had taken place.

After viewing CCTV footage of the altercation, Sheriff William Wood fined Ferguson £900.