A couple who brawled with security and police during a “raucous” gig by The Libertines have been ordered to complete community work.
Derek Milne and Caroline Rice stood shame-faced in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday after admitting drunken assaults at the Caird Hall show..
The couple had turned up at the concert steaming drunk and kicked off when they were asked to hand over a whisky bottle.
Milne sank his teeth into a security officer’s arm and then Rice kicked a female police officer who tried to pull her away.
Drinking since lunchtime
The chart-topping band had just come on stage when Milne, 40, and Rice, 42, were spotted with their own booze at the back of the venue.
They were approached by a security guard and asked to hand the bottle over, but the couple – who had been drinking since lunchtime – refused and hurled foul-mouthed abuse.
They were told they would be ejected from the gig if they did not hand the bottle over, but Rice took the whisky and hid it down the front of her top.
Security officer Lee Miles took hold of Milne in a bid to eject him from the premises but the accused bit him in the arm as he tried to wrestle himself free.
Rice screamed: “Dinna f***ing touch him. Get off him. Leave him. He hasn’t done anything.”
‘It was a Libertines concert’
When PC Jade Colvin, who was on duty at the concert, stepped forward to help, Rice lashed out and kicked her on the body. The couple, from Arbroath, were eventually arrested.
Both admitted carrying out assaults at the show on December 6, 2019. Sheriff Gregor Murray ordered both to complete 80 hours unpaid work.
Solicitor Billy Rennie, for carer Rice, said: “She has showed remorse. It was a Libertines concert. I’m not suggesting this behaviour would be encouraged there, but the atmosphere would be on the raucous side.
“She accepts she would have caused obstruction to other people and should not have behaved that way. Her involvement was relatively minor.”
Solicitor John Boyle, for engineering worker Milne, told the court: “To his credit he has not sought to use any excuse. It is a lesson learned.
“He is embarrassed and ashamed and has asked to express his apologies to the complainer in this case. There’s been appropriate recognition that his behaviour was unacceptable.”
Sheriff Murray said: “This was an act of sheer folly that took place, most pertinently, in the presence of a significant number of people.
“What you did could have, in the circumstances of the concert, caused a lot of trouble. It was aggravated by the amount you had drunk and your involvement in violence towards others who were doing their jobs.”
