A sister’s desperate plea to a sheriff failed to spare her brother from prison after he broke her cheekbone in a drunken Angus assault.
Offshore worker Fraser Smith had been boozing with friends before he went to his mum’s home in the early hours of October 13 last year.
In the 1am row over an earlier family incident he became “angry and frantic” towards both women, pushing his sister, Lesley, and causing her to fall to the ground before the frightened pair fled the house.
The 44-year-old’s victim had undergone an operation to correct an overbite just a week before the incident and x-rays revealed she had suffered a broken left cheekbone in the assault.
When police arrived at the scene Smith told officers: “I’ll seriously assault my mum as well”.
He later refused to speak to police or leave his cell to be presented at the charge bar after being arrested.
But Ms Smith did not want to press charges against her brother, and when the accused appeared for sentence on indictment at Forfar on Thursday the court was presented with an email plea from the woman asking for him not to be sent to prison.
Defence solicitor Nick Markowski described the victim as “a reluctant complainer”.
“He had been out with friends in Arbroath, stopped briefly at his mother’s house, there was an argument and his sister became involved,” Mr Markowski said.
“An unusual feature of this case is that she is keen her brother does not receive a custodial sentence.
“She has sent an email to the court and a fuller letter was also sent to the procurator fiscal.”
He said Smith, of South Links holiday park, Traill Drive, Montrose, had accepted criminal responsibility for the offence, but going to jail would cost him his well-paid offshore job.
But the court heard Smith’s record included previous imprisonment, although his offending had “decreased significantly” in the last 10 years.
Mr Markowski added: “The complainer would have been here in court to support her brother, but she is also employed offshore and is currently working.”
Sheriff Simon Collins told Smith: “I have taken into account the attitude of your sister, but the bottom line here is that you present a serious risk of harm to others when intoxicated.
“There is no alternative to custody.”
Smith was jailed for seven months.