Dundee man, 54, jailed for fireside poker attack on friend

A man who smashed his friend’s head with a fireside poker, then ran off leaving him covered in blood, was jailed.

Stuart Beattie, 54, of Whitfield Avenue, was jailed for six months at Dundee Sheriff Court after admitting assault.

Beattie admitted that on August 24 last year at Rowanbank, Drumgeith, he assaulted Darren Mills by repeatedly striking him on the head with a fireside poker, to his injury and permanent disfigurement.

The court heard Beattie carried out the attack amid a drunken brawl within a house at Rowanbank.

Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told the court Beattie and Mr Mills started fighting around 3am on August 23 last year after disagreeing about “minor matters”.

The fiscal said: “The accused struck the complainer twice on the head with the poker, then ran from the house.”

Mr Mills was left needing hospital treatment to two wounds one on his scalp and one on the bridge of his nose both of which will leave scarring.

Beattie was traced by police officers at 4.45am within his home address, wearing a bloodstained blue fleece jacket.