The trial of four Royal Marines accused of taking part in a street brawl has been put off for a third time due to IT problems.
Four marines from RM Condor near Arbroath have been accused of engaging in a fight and committing a breach of the peace in the town on January 19 last year.
DVDs of vital evidence were not compatible with playback software during their trial at Forfar Sheriff Court.
This followed protracted attempts to get Sam Neasham, Kevin Hurley, Marcus Christians, and Oliver Bale in the same courtroom at the same time to start proceedings.
Depute fiscal Jim Eodonable said the case had a “long and difficult gestation”.
He added: “I concede that the interests are more finely balanced than in a lot of cases.
“It’s not like ‘I’m off to make a lot of money on an oil rig’ but ‘I’m off to serve my country’.”
A Crown motion to postpone the trial was opposed by Ian Flynn, Lynn Sturrock and Michael Boyd, solicitors for the first three accused, and by Bale, who represented himself.
Bale said: “I’m going on deployment; as of Boxing Day I fly to Dubai for four months.
“It would take a lot of admin on the military’s side to replace me as I’m trained for it.”
The court heard Christians will deploy in April for a month and Hurley and Neasham will leave for Norway for four months.
Mr Flynn said the main reason all four were present was because they had all arranged leave but were due to disperse after Christmas.
“The Royal Marines are recognised as the rapid response unit across the world,” he added.
“It may well be very hard to get into the same position again but they must attend court they’re subject to the same law as everyone else.”
The court heard warrants that had been granted against Bale and Christians, who did not attend previous hearings, had not been executed by the Crown as they had made guarantees to appear yesterday.
All four men face the charge of causing a breach of the peace and fighting on Grant Road.
Christians is also accused of repeatedly punching and kicking a man on the head to his severe injury on the same date.
Accepting the Crown had not presented a difficulty in the case previously, Sheriff Pino Di Emidio agreed to a new trial date and pretrial hearing in May.