Crowbar attack man jailed for ‘cruel’ crime

Victim left with depression to his skull and partial paralysis after assault

A violent man who battered his victim’s skull with a crowbar in a vicious attack was jailed for 12 and a half years yesterday.

Scott Nelson burst into Greig Ramsay’s home in Fife in the middle of the night and assaulted another man before attacking Mr Ramsay in bed.

The injuries he inflicted have left Mr Ramsay, 38, with a depression to the left of his head, partially paralysed and struggling to speak.

In an emotional victim impact statement lodged at the High Court in Livingston, Mr Ramsay said: “The quality of living that I enjoyed prior to the attack may be gone forever.

“I have lost the freedom to plan out the course of my own path in life and have to rely heavily on others for even the simplest of undertakings.

“This will be my life sentence brought about by the cruel and vindictive actions of others.”

Nelson, 28, had denied attempting to murder Mr Ramsay and beating up Mark Christie, 42, over an alleged gambling debt but was convicted by a jury after trial.

The jury heard that Nelson, who was on bail at the time, went Christmas shopping after attacking his two victims in Mr Christie’s home on Cawdor Crescent, Kirkcaldy.

Passing sentence, Judge Lord Uist told Nelson: “Lawlessness of the sort in which you engaged, with such serious consequences for your victims, cannot be tolerated in a civilised society.

“Had it not been for the skill of the doctors who saved Mr Ramsay’s life you would now be facing a life sentence for murder.

“At hospital he had to have an emergency operation involving removal of part of the skull in order to repair the bleeding to his brain, leaving a surgical scar 16 centimetres in length.

“He has been left with a noticeable depression in his skull and will require a further operation to insert a plate under the skin to improve the appearance of the depression.

“He is no longer able to work, has weakness down the left side of his body and experiences great difficulty in speaking.

“Had it not been for medical intervention he would have died.”

Mr Christie sustained swollen eyes, a broken nose, two lacerations next to the right eye, a laceration next to the left eye, a laceration to the right eyelid, a subconjunctival haemorrhage – a broken blood vessel – to the left eye, and possible corneal trauma.

He also suffered fractures to the lower bones of the eye sockets and double vision and had to undergo surgery to repair his eye sockets.