A Dundee man escaped punishment by a sheriff yesterday, despite being found guilty of assaulting another man with a baseball bat.
Following a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff McGowan told Nadeem Mughal, 29, of Mains Loan, he would be admonished and dismissed, as he believed he had been “provoked beyond endurance” by Crown witnesses.
He told Mughal: “A number of witnesses did not properly fulfil their oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
He said two of the witnesses, Jamie Lee Miller and Mark Chalmers, had “downplayed their involvement in the incident and exaggerated the involvement of the accused”.
Mughal was found guilty on April 8 last year, at Brown Constable Street, of assaulting Mark Chalmers, c/o Tayside Police, by striking him on the arm with a baseball bat, to his injury.
He was also found guilty of breach of the peace by brandishing the bat in the street and also of possessing the baseball bat.
Sheriff McGowan also found him guilty of failing to appear at an earlier court hearing.
However, he found him not guilty of two other charges, one of assaulting Jamie Lee Miller by throwing an ornament at him, striking him on the head at 19 Brown Constable Street and assaulting Mark Chalmers by punching him on the face, to his injury.
On those charges he told Mughal: “There is no proper conjunction of the evidence of the three Crown witnesses.”
He added: “In particular, there is a doubt over the credibility of Mark Chalmers and the accounts by the three were so different there was no proper corroboration.”
However, he stressed that despite his doubts, there was sufficient corroboration to find Mughal guilty of the baseball bat charges.
During the trial the court heard evidence of a breakdown in relations between Mughal’s partner and her mother, who was a Crown witness and is also the aunt of Jamie Miller.
Sheriff McGowan said: “If Ms Miller is looking for a reason for the breakdown in relations between her and her daughter she should look no further than her nephew.”
He added that he “should be holding his head in shame” over the trouble he had caused to the family.
Solicitor Kevin Hampton said Mughal had spent 32 days in custody due to his failure to appear and it had had a “salutary effect” on him.
He said he had never been in trouble before, he was a masters student at Dundee University and would not trouble the courts again.
He said the catalyst for the incidents were “remarks made by Mr Miller”.
Sheriff McGowan added: “I accept that this is not a straightforward situation. You were provoked beyond endurance and a red mist descended but I can’t condone it.”
He said the use of a baseball bat is “not only a crime, it is likely to inflame matters more”.
“Taking into account the time you have spent in custody you are admonished and dismissed,” he added.