A former soldier who left a man permanently scarred after glassing him in an Arbroath pub has been ordered to pay his victim £1,000 compensation.
Gareth Ruxton required seven stitches on his left cheek following John Dodds’ vicious attack at Bar 1320 on December 1 2019.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Dodds had been “tearfully” chatting to Mr Ruxton, prior to plunging the glass into his face.
Dodds, of Rosendael veterans’ residency in Broughty Ferry, continued to throw punches and ended up struggling on the floor with Mr Ruxton before being split up by pub-goers.
‘I’ve f***** up’
A blood-spattered Dodds was frogmarched by a friend of the victim to Arbroath police station, having stated immediately he would hand himself in of his own accord.
The pair waved across two officers en route and he confessed to the attack, stating: “I’ve f***** up. I must have punched him with a glass in my hand.”
Dodds’ victim was later found in a side street, bleeding “profusely” from the 5cm gash and was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
There, he received seven stitches in his left cheek under local anaesthetic and says he has been left to live with piercing jolts of pain surging from the scar on a near weekly basis.
Prosecutor Lora Apostolova said: “Mr Ruxton reported loss of feeling and numbness around the scar and three or four times a month, he gets extremely sharp shooting pains across the scar.”
Compensation
Dodds, 38, pled guilty to assaulting Mr Ruxton by grabbing him by the neck, striking him on the head and struggling with him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment.
The court heard how Dodds had been diagnosed with PTSD two years before the incident and had been seeking treatment at the time of the attack.
Sheriff Richard McFarlane ordered the ex-soldier to perform 200 hours of unpaid work and placed him on supervision for the next 24 months.
Dodds must also pay Mr Ruxton £1,000 in compensation.
