A “hallucinating” Hallowe’en drink-driver crashed his parents’ car and then assaulted a witness who came across the accident.
Dressed as Batman’s psychotic enemy The Joker, 23-year-old Stuart Bond ploughed into a parked car as he fled a party in what he said was a state of fear.
The student told Perth Sheriff Court he had started to believe people were trying to kill him as he attended a gathering at Strathallan Airfield, Auchterarder, on October 31 last year.
Bond had consumed two bottles of lager and two vodkas but believes one of his drinks was also spiked with amphetamines, causing him to have a severe and unsettling reaction.
Attempts by a friend to calm him down failed and he eventually drove away from the airfield, travelling on Drummond Street in Muthill before he was involved in an accident.
During a trial at Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday, witnesses Ian McGregor and Angela Parr said they had been in a taxi with friends and family when they came upon the crash. They found the accused standing by the front of his damaged car.
Ms Parr, a psychologist, said she had left the taxi to see if Bond was injured and found him to confused and agitated, which she said were often symptoms of shock. She also formed the opinion he was under the influence of alcohol or some other substance.
When attempts to calm the accused failed, Mr McGregor (33) also left the taxi only to be assaulted by Bond almost immediately, with his push causing the witness to strike his head.
Police were contacted and Bond was taken to divisional headquarters in Perth where he was given a breath test and interviewed.
PC Anna Barnett told the trial he had complained his drink had been spiked with something, adding that “something had happened to him.”
Giving evidence, Bond said he started to feel ill after around two hours at the party.
“I sort of remember hallucinations and I started to see everyone else with their faces distorted, he said. “That had never happened to me before and I started to feel really scared and paranoid.
“I thought everyone at the party was trying to get me and were even trying to kill me.”
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis found Bond, of Clarence Drive, Glasgow, guilty of two charges the first that he drove a car with excess alcohol (74 mics) on Drummond Street in Muthill, and of assaulting Ian McGregor by pushing him to his injury.
Sheriff Foulis disqualified Bond from driving for 15 months and also fined him £300. He ordered him to pay Mr McGregor £100 compensation.