A man whose Angus street assault left his victim with a broken jaw and cheekbone was ordered to pay £6000 compensation for the vicious attack.
Electrician Scott Harper has been ordered to hand over £1000 within a month and then pay off the rest at the rate of £500 each month thereafter, as well as receiving a two-year probation order and 100 hours of community service for the latest chapter in what a sheriff described as “an extraordinary record of violence.”
Harper had returned to Forfar Sheriff Court for sentence having earlier admitted an indictment relating to the incident in the town’s Tweedmill Brae on February 9 2010 in which he assaulted Jonathon Soutar and repeatedly punched him on the head to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement, while on bail.
The court previously heard the victim had encountered Harper after going to the door of a property near his home when he heard a disturbance inside.
There was a brief altercation at that time, in which Soutar ended up on the ground but picked himself up and was heard by a witness to say to Harper, “I know where you live. I’ll be coming to get you.”
Soon after, the two men met again and it was then that Harper punched his victim twice on the head, rendering Mr Soutar unconscious. Soutar’s lower jaw was broken in two places and he also sustained a fractured cheekbone.
He had a titanium plate inserted in his face to repair the broken jaw and has been left with permanent nerve damage.
When arrested, Harper told police, “It must have been a fluke. I only hit him and sparked him out. He shouldn’t have come to my door. He started on me.”
Defence agent Nick Markowski told the court the complainer was a stranger to the accused until he knocked on the house door that night.
The agent said the remark Mr Soutar made after the initial altercation had left Harper’s girlfriend “almost hysterical.”
“His position is that Mr Soutar was a complete stranger and had threatened to come to get him.”
He admitted his client had four previous sheriff court convictions for assault but the earlier offences had related to incidents in public houses.’Dreadful record’Mr Markowski said Harper was now living in Aberdeen and earning £2-3000 a month so he was in a position to compensate Soutar.
Sheriff Derek Pyle told the accused, “I have to say that when I read these papers I was pretty well certain I was going to impose a lengthy custodial sentence because of the nature of the injuries sustained.
“You have a pretty dreadful record for someone who is bright enough an extraordinary record of violence.
“But I can see merit in a substantial compensation order.
“This should have been a wake-up call and can I make it absolutely clear that if you are in trouble again you will be going to jail for a very substantial period.”
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