A drunk Kirriemuir teenager smashed a Smirnoff vodka bottle over a 15-year-old boy’s head while drinking in a town park.
Adam Shaw admitted severely injuring the boy after spotting him play-fighting with another male at The Den.
Intoxicated Shaw was only 17 when, unprovoked, he assaulted the boy at the town’s Crofthead Terrace on October 15 in 2021.
His solicitor explained Shaw had been drinking with friends and they met with another group at The Den and “toy-fighting” broke out.
Now 19, he returned to the dock at Forfar Sheriff Court where he was handed an alternative to prison.
‘That’s not how you hit someone’
Fiscal depute Sam Craib explained: “The two groups came together on the evening of October 15.
“It appears that some of the males began fighting.
“The accused has came up behind one of the parties and stated something similar to ‘that’s not how you hit someone’.”
The boy turned to face Shaw, who struck him on the right side of his head with a Smirnoff vodka bottle.
After the attack, the bottle fell to the ground and shattered.
Mr Craib added: “The accused realised what he had done and ran away from the locus.”
The victim attended at Ninewells where a two-inch cut above his right eye was treated with multiple stitches.
‘Good fortune’
Shaw, of Steven Crescent in Kirriemuir, previously admitted severely injuring the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Sentencing had been deferred for a social work report.
Solicitor Nick Markowski said: “He’s obviously been advised that anyone who assaults someone with a glass bottle in this way has their liberty at risk.
“He was under the influence of alcohol.”
Mr Markowski explained two boys had been “toy-fighting.”
“That’s been seen by Mr Shaw and misinterpreted by him.
“He accepts it is an unprovoked attack.
“He is lucky that this has been prosecuted at this level and the complainer’s injuries weren’t more significant. That’s just good fortune.”
Mr Markowski added his client had completed a separate community payback order since carrying out the attack.
“He is a young man who would benefit from both supervision and intervention.
“The rate of offending has certainly slowed down.
“He’s aware that his liberty is at risk.
“There is a challenging dynamic in the family home. He’s not working at present.”
‘Catastrophic consequences’ warning
Sheriff Krista Johnston placed Shaw under supervision for a year and ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
She told him: “This is a serious offence.
“Any assault with a weapon such as a bottle and can have quite catastrophic consequences.
“The harm that you caused was, in any event, serious in this case.
“I can deal with you by way of an alternative to a custodial sentence.”
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