‘Insufficient’ evidence in Perth homophobic attack case

A LITHUANIAN man walked free from Perth Sheriff Court yesterday after having faced a charge of punching a man after claiming he had been raped by him.

Stasys Astravskas (32), of Princes Street, Perth, denied that on May 5 last year at Canal Street, Perth, he assaulted the man by punching him to the face and also denied that the alleged offence was aggravated by sexual prejudice.

A 47-year-old man told the court that he had been punched in the back of the head by Astravskas, possibly in the doorway on the way out of Zoo nightclub on Canal Street.

He told depute fiscal Robbie Brown he thought he was struck a “couple of times”.

PC Kevin Dempsey (37) told the court he saw the accused “swinging a punch” as he drove into Canal Street.

He said that when he spoke to Astravskas, he claimed he had been raped by the other man and shouted across to him that the complainer was “gay”.

PC Dempsey said he had seen both men sitting on a wall of a car park opposite the nightclub and spoke to the accused at around 3.27am.

Sheriff Michael Fletcher found there was no case to answer as he considered there was “insufficient” evidence to convict Astravskas.