The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Killer driver back in dock over assault at community campus
Forfar man claimed racial taunt led to a ‘handbags at dawn’ scene with victim before punch
A killer driver who served additional jail time for getting behind the wheel when banned has appeared back in the dock over an assault at an Angus secondary school campus.
Halim Cholmeley’s presence at the Forfar community campus was described as being like a “moth to a flame” to another man with whom he became involved in a “handbags at dawn” scene, before punching him in the face.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard the 44-year-old had been provoked with a racial taunt and other abuse.
Cholmeley, of Osprey Drive, Forfar, appeared before Sheriff Gregor Murray for sentence having previously admitted assaulting another male at Forfar community campus on March 23 by punching him on the head to his injury.
Depute fiscal Stewart Duncan said the victim of the attack was not happy when Cholmeley appeared at the campus and words were exchanged, before the accused hit the complainer, causing his nose to bleed and a superficial cut.
A janitor intervened and when police interviewed the accused he said he had been subjected to a racial comment.
Defence solicitor William Boyle said: “I am not minimising this in any way but it looks like handbags at dawn.
“When they were squaring up to each other words were exchanged about race and another matter.”
The other matter cannot be reported for legal reasons.
Sheriff Murray said to Cholmeley: “I am aware of a good deal of the background. You are quite right to accept your presence there was the moth to the flame.”
He was fined £500.
In 2009, Cholmeley was jailed for six years at Edinburgh High Court for causing a crash on Dundee’s Kingsway which claimed the life of Perth taxi driver Gavin McCabe.
He was released in 2013, but was sent back behind bars for six months at the end of 2017 after it emerged he had been driving while disqualified on a new licence issued in a DVLA blunder.