A River City actor has been found guilty of assaulting a woman by punching and spitting on her during a booze-fuelled rammy in a Dundee social club.
Brian Leys, 40, claimed he was being mimicked by Shannon Devine, her sister Shauni and other members of her party at a packed Fairmuir Social Club.
Leys’ acting career has been on hold since the allegations around the May 1 2022 incident came to light.
He joined the BBC Scotland soap in 2021 and stars as Ash King.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Ms Devine and her party arrived at the Balgay Street club at around 1.30pm and were drinking until the incident around six hours later.
She said the club was busy and people were “packed in like sardines” at tables.
Accused ‘screaming’ at group
Ms Devine claimed she only became aware of Leys when he began shouting as she walked to the bar.
“I turned around and Brian was leaning over the table screaming in my sister’s face,” Ms Devine, a primary early years support assistant, said.
“Brian wouldn’t stop screaming and when I asked him to calm down he spat at me and threw a drink over me.
“I had asked him what the problem was and he seems to think that we were talking about him.”
Ms Devine admitted spitting on Leys and throwing a drink at him in retaliation.
She claimed Leys “flew over” the table and was punching her as she lay propped up between the floor and the seat.
Leys was grabbed by a man before leaving the premises.
Defence solicitor Larry Flynn asked: “Is it not the case that none of that happened and your group pushed him over?
“This is simply you having consumed too much alcohol, getting upset with someone at the next table and you end up in a confrontation.”
Ms Devine denied that was the position and denied mimicking him.
Defence evidence
Leys claimed the incident unfolded as he was trying to escort his aunt, who was under the influence of alcohol, out of the venue.
Giving evidence in his defence, Leys, who said he drank up to four gin and tonics, said: “I heard she (his aunt) was causing a bit of a scene in the main lounge because she was drunk.
“I look to avoid any kind of confrontation at all.
“There was a group of girls and they were just being really nasty saying all sorts, mimicking what I was saying.
“I regrettably said ‘why don’t you mind your own f****** business?’
“In that moment there was just girls surrounding me.”
Leys said he and Shannon Devine were face-to-face, adding he was mimicking what she was saying in retaliation.
He said he was hit with a “projectile” spit from her.
Leys claimed he then threw his drink over Ms Devine before he was “grabbed and pulled” to the floor.
Guilty
Sheriff Morag Fraser said he found Shannon and Shauni Devine to be credible and reliable witnesses.
She found Leys, of Blackness Road, guilty of assault.
Sentence was deferred until October for him to be of good behaviour.
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