A veteran police officer’s career is in ruins after he was caught on camera headbutting a colleague during a flare-up at Perth HQ.
Constable Evan MacDonald attacked PC Douglas Stapleton following a row about paperwork at Police Scotland’s Barrack Street base.
The officer, who has been suspended since the incident in 2023, denied the assault suggesting his victim was lying to get him into trouble.
His lawyer tried to dismissed the violent encounter as a “storm in a teacup”.
But after a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court, MacDonald, 54, was found guilty of assaulting PC Stapleton by headbutting him, seizing hold of his clothing and pinning him against a wall to his injury.
The conviction will almost certainly end the constable’s 16-year career.
‘A foregone conclusion’
Incriminating CCTV footage of the incident from July 25 2023 was played during the trial.
It shows the pair, in uniform, clashing heads in an alley outside the station, before MacDonald holds his colleague against a wall.
MacDonald claimed he had gone towards his victim “with his head down” and grabbed his arms, because he believed he was going to attack him.
Sheriff Alison McKay told MacDonald: “I am entitled to form my own view of what the CCTV footage shows.
“I am satisfied it shows you assaulting your colleague.”
The sheriff said she did not accept the officer was acting in self defence.
“Even if you believed you were in danger, the actions you took were not proportionate,” she said.
Sheriff McKay further rejected MacDonald’s claims he had nowhere to escape, pointing out he was in front of PC Stapleton in a long corridor.
“It’s disappointing to note from your own evidence that, even given your years of police service, this didn’t even occur to you.”
The sheriff added: “This was described by your solicitor as a storm in a teacup.
“I do not agree with that assessment.
“And I am saddened and disappointed that the conduct of experienced, serving police officers has had to be scrutinised by this court.”
MacDonald was fined £1,500.
Asked what impact the conviction will have on his job, defence agent Gary McIlravey said: “It is a foregone conclusion.”
Allegations that MacDonald had also repeatedly punched his victim during the assault were deleted from the charged.
Headbutt to the jaw
The court heard the two cops argued over paperwork at the end of a busy night shift.
PC Stapleton, 57, said they fell out because MacDonald had allocated a crime report to his probationary officer Zoe Turnbull to fill in.
He said when they first discussed the issue, MacDonald was “okay” with him.
But at around midnight, as PC Stapleton was logging off, MacDonald approached him again.
“He was agitated and angry,” said PC Stapleton.
MacDonald asked: “Do you not do any paperwork?”
Then he told PC Stapleton: “Right, outside now.”
The constable followed MacDonald as he “marched” towards a door and down a set of stairs towards the custody suite.
They went through a fire door to the car park.
“As soon as the door closed behind me, he ran at me,” said PC Stapleton.
“His head connected with my jaw.”
The officer said he had no time to react.
“I fell back against the door and he sort of grabbed me round my arms, leaning in.”
The constable said he was held for about 10 seconds and “there were a few punches to my head.”
‘He staged something’
MacDonald gave the court what prosecutor Stuart Hamilton called a “diametrically opposed” version of events.
He said that PC Stapleton had returned from Dundee and began “shouting and bawling” at him.
“He was calling me all sorts of things,” he told his trial. “He said I was a ‘lazy b******’.
“I thought it was a joke at first.”
MacDonald accepted they argued about the allocation of paperwork to PC Turnbull.
“She came to see me, and she sort of mimicked Dougie, saying: ‘You’ve got to do it your f***ing self.'”
He said he went to ask PC Stapleton “why he gave such an instruction”.
MacDonald, who had been due to go on holiday the next day, led him out of the office and down the stairs.
He claimed he grabbed PC Stapleton after he said: “Give it your best shot you big pr**k” – something PC Stapleton had denied saying.
MacDonald claimed that the officer was lying about the assault, adding: “I thought he had staged something.”
Mr Hamilton asked: “Was this a conspiracy to get you into some kind of trouble?”
MacDonald replied: “I don’t know what he was playing at that night.”
Impact of conviction
Perth Sergeant Greig Ferguson told the trial he was in his office when he heard “three or four” loud bangs from outside.
An officer told him: “I think Dougie and Evan are fighting out in the car park.”
When he later questioned PC Stapleton, he could see red marks on his neck.
But the officer told the court he had initially denied there had been an assault, because he didn’t want to get his colleague into trouble.
Following the conviction, Mr McIlravey said: “This will inevitably impact substantially on his employment, his career and his pension.”
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