Two brothers who mowed a man down with a car are facing lengthy jail sentences for attempted murder.
Colin Sangster, 27, and Alexander Sangster, 25, pursued Paul Ross in the vehicle before mounting a pavement and striking the pedestrian.
Mr Ross was hit on the body and thrown into the air before landing and sustaining serious injuries in the assault in Brechin.
The victim told the High Court in Edinburgh that in the wake of the attack his left leg was “dangling a bit like a bit of spaghetti” and bone was protruding from a kneecap. He underwent extensive surgery for fractures to his legs.
The younger brother was heard saying, as he and his elder sibling fled the scene: “What the f*** have we done.”
Colin Sangster, of Carberry Crescent, Dundee, and his younger brother, a prisoner in Grampian jail, had both denied attempting to murder Mr Ross, 35, on August 18 2019 at City Road.
But a jury unanimously convicted the pair. The trial judge, Lord Beckett, said the verdicts were “plainly decisive” and told jurors they were “entirely justified by the evidence”.
The brothers were both under the influence of alcohol when they chased their quarry in the car before attacking him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment and to the danger of his life and attempting to murder him following an earlier altercation.
Advocate depute Margaret Barron told jurors: “It was fortunate Paul Ross survived the impact.”
The prosecutor said evidence clearly pointed to the older brother being the driver of the Renault Clio with his younger brother a passenger.
The Crown maintained the unemployed pair had acted together with a common criminal purpose in the offence.
Mr Ross, a greenkeeper, had been at a barbecue and out in Forfar before returning to his home town by taxi with others.
He said when he got out, an altercation had already started between the two men he was with and a group in the street in Brechin.
He said a woman struck him on the face and told the court: “I didn’t know what was going on. I had just got out of the taxi.”
Further trouble ensued and at one stage Mr Ross said he was struck by the younger Sangster brother.
After he was hit by the car he said he found himself in the road with his legs snapped. He said: “I was struggling to come to terms with what had happened, why somebody would want to do that.”
Lord Beckett adjourned sentencing for the preparation of background reports on the brothers until February 15 at the High Court in Glasgow with the pair remanded in custody.
To better understand how our court reporting works, click here to view our online guide.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.
