A former soldier has been jailed for five years after attacking a man with a kitchen fork and setting his dog on
him.
Robert Moffat, 51, who stated he had served with the Royal Corp of Transport and the Royal Pioneer Corp, as well as serving in Northern Ireland five times, had been found guilty by a majority jury verdict.
At Perth Sheriff Court, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis stated that Moffat had a lengthy list of previousconvictions, including assault, and had been jailed in 2011 for 31 months.
Witness Frances Lamont, who was formerly in a relationship with Moffat, told the court he had called her in the early hours of the morning whilecarrying out an attack on her brother, leading her to call 999.
She said she could hear Moffat instructing the animal, a two-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier/rottweiler cross called Norton, to attack her brother, John Lamont.
Moffat had owned the dog for around 10 months.
Mr Lamont, of Perth, told the court: “He stabbed me with a fork. He went for my left eye. I was screaming at him tostop.
“The dog was hanging off the back of my leg, it was sore. The fight ended when the dog went onto me. I was too busytrying to get the dog off my leg.”
Mr Lamont spent a week in hospital and the court was told the dog had bitten him on the arm, foot, abdomen, andseveral times on both legs.
A dog behavioural expert told the jury that because the dog had attacked aperson it should be put down for public safety reasons.
Moffat, of Crieff, was found guilty of assaulting John Lamont by repeatedly punching him and striking him with a kitchen fork before instructing his dog to attack him at an address on North Bridge Street, Crieff, on May 23.
Sheriff Foulis told Moffat: “You come before this court being someone who is no stranger to crimes of violence.
“There is probably something in a human being being repeatedlyattacked by an animal that takes matters to another level as far as fear isconcerned.”
He also sentenced Moffat to be on extended licence for two years on his release from prison and orderedforfeiture of the dog.