Fort soldier granted an absolute discharge

A FORT William soldier currently serving with The Highlanders, 4th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland – also known as 4 SCOTS – received an absolute discharge when he appeared at court this week.

Connor Brown, whose address was given as Banff Crescent, Fort William, but who is based at Catterick in North Yorkshire with his battalion, appeared before Sheriff William Taylor at Fort William Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Brown, 20, had previously pleaded guilty by letter to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm in Fort William's Middle Street and High Street on November 13 last year.

Brown had been arrested after shouting and swearing in an aggressive manner and had committed this offence while on bail.

Sentence had been deferred until Tuesday's date for Brown to travel up from his army base at Catterick to make a personal appearance at court.

The court heard how Brown had been drinking at the Volunteer Arms pub in Fort William with other members of the armed forces when what was described by defence agent Hamish Melrose as a 'verbal exchange' spilled out into the street.

'This was what was seen by police officers,' said Mr Melrose, adding that, as a result, his client had subsequently been banned from all the pubs in the town for 12 months under the Pubwatch scheme. No-one had been injured in the incident and giving Brown an absolute discharge, Sheriff William Taylor said difficulties could arise when the inter-service rivalry likely to have been at the bottom of this incident, got out of hand.

'It can get you into a hell of a lot of trouble and land you in court as it has today,' said Sheriff Taylor, before saying the public interest was served best in this case by granting Brown an absolute discharge.