A man who repeatedly struck his victim on the head with a glass deodorant bottle after spilling booze inside his car has been jailed.
Ross Keir, 33, was convicted of the offence following a trial by jury at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last month.
He had claimed during the trial he was the victim of an assault during an altercation with Christopher Marchetti in the city’s Beath Avenue, Touch, on May 27 2020.
The jury found Keir guilty of the bottling offence following three days of evidence and he was remanded in custody by a sheriff.
Keir appeared in the dock for sentencing this week.
Previous conviction
Defence lawyer Alan Davie said although the offence was serious, the complainer acknowledged himself in evidence he landed strikes on Keir during the incident.
Mr Davie said: “This was not an offence within a vacuum.”
The solicitor said a combination of alcohol and pain relief medication explained some of the background.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Keir although his record for violence was limited, he did have a conviction for assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement in 2017.
After completing a six-month restriction of liberty order for this he went on to commit the crime against Mr Marchetti.
The sheriff told him: “So about a month after you finished the restriction of liberty order for an offence of serious violence you commit another offence involving serious violence.”
He was jailed for 15 months, backdated to May 24 when he was remanded in custody.
‘Shiny thing’ stuck in victim’s head
Procurator fiscal depute Laura McManus told jurors previously victim Mr Marchetti’s evidence was an “inebriated” Keir came over to his car asking for a party and was spilling alcohol on and inside the vehicle.
The fiscal depute said: “Mr Marchetti got out and Ross Keir started to touch his face and then threatens to stab him.
“Ross Keir then repeatedly struck Mr Marchetti with a glass men’s deodorant bottle, and struck him so many times that ultimately it broke on his head.
“Mr Marchetti said this broken bottle was stabbed into the back of his head as he tried to walk away.”
A witness told the trial they had seen two males covered in blood and wrestling with each other, while another saw a “shiny thing” which they thought could have been glass coming from the back of one man’s head.
The fiscal depute also referred to evidence given during the trial by professor Anthony Busutill, an expert in causes of injury or death, who said Mr Marchetti’s account of being hit on the head was consistent with the injuries detailed in his medical notes.
The charges
Keir was found guilty of assaulting Mr Marchetti by repeatedly striking him on the head with a glass bottle, pursuing him, struggling with him and attempting to punch him and threatening him with violence, to his severe injury.
Keir, formerly of Dunfermline’s Law Road, was found not guilty of a second allegation that he struck another man with a hammer and repeatedly punched him in the city’s Henryson Road road in August 2020.
He was also cleared of possessing a hammer on this occasion.
