A violent thug who put a gun to a man’s head and threatened “I’ll end you” has been jailed for five years.
Jody Venters got in Michael Robinson’s face and started shouting: “Are you laughing at me?”
Venters, 34, then revealed the firearm in the waistband of his jeans during the confrontation in a pub.
He punched his victim in the face before pulling out the gun and pointing it at Mr Robinson and struck him with the butt of the weapon above his right eye in the attack at the Railway Tavern in Lawrence Street, Buckhaven.
Venters was later detained by police and a search carried out at a house in Buckhaven where a gun was recovered that was designed to fire air gun pellets.
Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson told the High Court in Edinburgh: “The gun was not in working order. It had a faulty trigger mechanism.”
Unemployed Venters, of Dalhousie Gardens, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, had earlier carried out a knife attack on another man at a pub in Fife.
Steven Gray was wounded on the hand as he tried to protect himself after Venters swung at him following an altercation at the Central Bar in Station Road, Cardenden.
A judge told Venters: “You have pled guilty to serious offences involving actual violence and the threat of violence.” John Morris QC told him only “a substantial prison sentence” was appropriate.
Venters had earlier admitted assaulting Mr Gray to his severe injury by striking him with a knife at the pub on November 23 last year. He also pled guilty to assaulting Mr Robinson on January 9 this year by repeatedly punching him, knocking him to the floor, presenting a firearm at him, striking him it and threatening him with violence.
He further admitted a firearms offence and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by instructing an employee at the Railway Tavern to delete CCTV recording and threatening him with violence if he failed to do so.
Detective Inspector John Anderson, who led the investigation, said: “Jody Venters is a violent and callous individual who has demonstrated his willingness to utilise weapons and cause harm to others.”