A pair of teenagers who left two children with head injuries in an alcohol-fuelled attack in a Monifieth park have been fined £600 each.
Sheriff Derek Pyle told 17-year-old Dale Stephen and Ryan Black that they “could have killed” their victims after they delivered repeated blows to the heads of the two boys at Blue Seaway Park on July 23 last year.
The co-accused were originally told they would stand trial before a sheriff and jury after doctors feared one of the boys had sustained permanent eyesight damage as a result of the assault.
Fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie told Arbroath Sheriff Court on Tuesday that the two parties had met in the park around 10.20pm and a disturbance had ensued. She said jobless Black, of Traquair Gardens, Dundee, had told the boys “in no uncertain terms” that they were “going to be battered”.
He and apprentice joiner Stephen, of Newbigging Road, Tealing, then repeatedly punched and kicked their first victim aged just 14 at the time before kneeing him and stamping on his head, all to his injury.
They then pulled their second victim to the ground before repeatedly punching, kicking and stamping on his head to his injury.
She said the boy, then 15, was “dazed and confused” and asked the two what they were doing as he didn’t want to engage in a fight.
The victims eventually managed to contact their parents, who came to collect them before alerting emergency services.
The first boy was found to have bleeding and swelling to his nose and face as well as a swollen cheekbone and a cut to the head. He told medics that his head was “throbbing and sore”.
The second victim complained of a swollen left eye and a cut to his arm and reported blurred vision that lasted for around a week.
For Stephen, solicitor Hamish Watt insisted his client had shown “a great deal of remorse” for his actions. He said, “This incident occurred as a result of Mr Stephen having taken alcohol and since then he has completely abstained.”
He said Stephen had not once breached the curfew that required him to remain at his home address from 9.30pm to 6am and that he was “unlikely to come before the courts again.”
On behalf of Black, Billy Rennie said his client had made “positive” changes to his life since the incident and had just accepted an offer of employment.
Sheriff Pyle told both accused that the nature of the assault meant he had considered a custodial sentence.
He said, “What is worrying is that when the complainers were on the ground, you stamped on their heads. You could have killed them and normally I would be looking at a custodial sentence for that.
“But, given that you have both never been in trouble before, I am going to deal with you by way of a fine.”