A sheriff branded an angry scuffle over a Stirlingshire parking spot “utter nonsense” and told the accused joiner “I’m not here to adjudicate on parking spaces”.
Stirlingshire joiner Kevin Leyden bit his neighbour during the fight, which broke out when he parked his work van on the street.
Neighbour Gary Perrie accused him of parking the vehicle too close to his own at the housing off the A905, at Fallin, on the outskirts of Stirling.
A verbal argument escalated to a physical one, during which the pair smashed the windscreen of another car by slamming into it.
A lawyer for the 35-year-old said he had bitten in self defence as he was “blacking out” while Mr Perrie held his neck.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahoney admonished him and said: “Both you and Mr Perrie should have known better.
“It’s utter nonsense – I’m not here to adjudicate on parking spaces.”
Parking row
Fiscal depute Lindsay Brooks told Stirling Sheriff Court Mr Perrie had been washing his car on Alexander McLeod Place when Leyden arrived home.
“There has been issues related to parking in the street.
“The accused drove his van into the street and parked close to Gary Perrie’s vehicle.
“He didn’t think it was necessary to park so close and asked him to move it.
“The accused shouted back, ‘It’s all right, I didn’t scrape your car. I can park where I want’.
“There was a verbal altercation, which became physical.”
She said Mr Perrie was bitten during this.
Bit neighbour to release choke hold
Solicitor Fraser McCready, defending, said the housebuilders had not provided enough parking, with Leyden’s home only having room for one car.
“Mr Leyden is a joiner to trade and this was his work van.
“The house they moved into fairly recently is a new house and on these new estates there’s never enough parking. His house has only one parking space.
“There’s a lay-by that’s an overflow for excess parking and that’s a bit of a free-for-all.
“The problem is Mr Layden had moved in after the complainer and has been parking his van there.
“He has nowhere else to park and the complainer has taken umbrage at that – this led to the altercation.”
He added: “A neighbour indicated that the complainer was trying to restrain the accused on the floor and the complainer has Mr Layden in some sort of hold on the neck.
“He was frightened and felt he was blacking out and he bit him to get him to release his grip.
“He very, very much regrets this situation.”
Leyden admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner on September 27 last year.
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