A dancefloor dispute in a Dunfermline nightclub led to an assault where the victim suffered a double fracture to the jaw.
The assailant, John Kenny, avoided a jail sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court despite having previously been convicted of a similar assault in which the victim’s eye socket was fractured.
Kenny, 24, a joiner, of Rhynd Cottage, Saline, admitted that on September 21 at Harlem, Bruce Street, he assaulted Danny Tarling by punching him to the head, causing him to fall to the ground, to his severe injury.
Depute fiscal Cheryl Clark said the accused and the victim knew each other and were at the nightclub separately with friends.
At one point Kenny had asked Mr Tarling: “What’s your problem? Why are you being like that?”
A punch had been thrown at Kenny and he responded by hitting Mr Tarling. The blow caused two fractures to the jaw and required surgery to insert plates.
Sheriff Chris Shaed said it was “extremely troubling” that, in the report before him, Kenny had said he had acted in self-defence in both his assault convictions.
“Having been convicted of assaults which are disturbingly similar, he has learned nothing and he appears to consider what he was doing was defending himself,” the sheriff said.
Defence agent Stephen Morrison said his client now accepted that under the law he could not act in the way he had.
A punch had been thrown at him, which he “dodged”, said Mr Morrison, and he accepts he could have walked away at that point.
He said his client had shown “huge and genuine remorse” for his actions. He said his client and another male friend had been dancing together, “showing off”, and this resulted in hostility from the group Mr Tarling was with, which led to goading.
Sheriff Shaed said Kenny had shown “demonstrable remorse” and he could impose an alternative sentence to custody.
He imposed a community payback order with 12 months’ supervision, 225 hours’ unpaid work and a £1,500 compensation order.