An Angus man who battered a fellow party guest with a wooden garden chair after a 10-hour summer barbecue drinking session has been jailed for 20 months.
Michael Smith left James Dolan, nicknamed ‘The Big Man’ with a misshapen head and wounds which required 20 stitches following a garden fight between the pair, who a court heard were “stewed” after the all-night Forfar party.
The 34-year-old groundsman was described as hard-working and a loving dad and husband, but his solicitor said the offence happened because of the drinking which had been at the root of all his offending.
Smith, of Goosecroft, Forfar, appeared before Sheriff Pino Di Emidio at the town’s sheriff court where he admitted an indictment relating to the July incident last year in which he repeatedly hit Mr Dolan with a chair at a house in Station Road, Forfar, to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
Depute fiscal Joanne Smith said the accused and his 35-year-old victim had been guests at a birthday party barbecue which began around 6pm.
“Around 4am the householder went to his bed, leaving the accused and Mr Dolan still drinking in the living room with others,” the court was told.
The pair then became involved in a heated argument, matters escalated and they were asked to leave.
They went out into the garden and spent the best part of an hour arguing before Smith launched the brutal attack.
Smith then came back into the house, asked for his jacket and left, before his victim also returned, covered in blood and asking for help.
When arrested by police, Smith told officers: “It was just a fight.”
Solicitor Nick Markowski said his client had been released from a previous prison sentence in 2013 and had gone 13 months without a drink.
Sheriff Di Emidio told Smith: “You have a bad record with analogous convictions for assault.”