Two young serving soldiers have admitted seriously assaulting three people, one of them a woman, in a Dundee street.
Scots Guards Stephen Elliot, 18, and Dean Stewart, 19, were told by Sheriff McMillan they were in danger of a jail sentence after they admitted they had committed an “extremely serious and sustained assault”, which was “entirely, totally and completely unacceptable”.
Deferring sentence, he said: “All options including jail are open to me. Therefore I must order reports due to the seriousness of the assault and your ages.”
Both soldiers, who are based at Catterick, will now face disciplinary action from the army, the court was told.
Elliot, of Hatton Rigg Road in Glasgow, admitted that on November 2, in Seagate, he assaulted Lisa Marie White, c/o Police Scotland, by punching her on the head.
He also admitted assaulting Thomas Kenneth, c/o Police Scotland, by holding him over a fence and punching him on the head.
Stewart, of Glenconnor Drive in Dundee, admitted assaulting John Young, c/o Police Scotland, seizing him by the clothing, repeatedly punching him on the head and attempting to kick him on the head, all to his injury.
Depute fiscal Douglas Wiseman told the court the three victims had been walking in Seagate when the “unmerited” attack happened.
He said they were all drunk or under the influence of alcohol, and became involved in a verbal altercation with the accused, who were with a third soldier called McEwan who was arguing with Lisa White.
Mr Wiseman said: “Elliot came up behind White and punched her on the face, whereupon Mr McEwan pushed him away.
“Elliot then crossed over the road and met up with the accused Stewart, who was in conversation with Mr Young.
“Mr Young starts to go over to Ms White and Stewart runs up and attacks Mr Young from behind, delivering four substantial blows to his head.
“Ms White attempted to intervene, but Stewart gets a grip of Mr Young’s clothing and rains down a further three blows to his head.
“Stewart then aims a high kick towards Mr Young’s head but misses,” he said.
“Meanwhile, Elliot is seen to be holding Mr Kenneth over a fence before punching him on the face.”
The incident was seen by police on CCTV and they were quickly on the scene to arrest the pair, Mr Wiseman told the court.
Sentence was deferred until March 6 and they were granted bail.