A group who carried out a brutal attack on a couple in a Perth nightclub have had their appeal against conviction turned down.
Barry Burgess, Keri-Anne Connolly and Carri-Ann Stephen were convicted in March last year of assaulting bodybuilder Gary Singh and his partner Eilidh Duncan in the Ice Factory.
After initially attacking them inside the club, the fight spilled on to the South Inch outside where Burgess and his accomplices were said to have acted “like a pack of dogs,” beating Mr Singh and striking him with a broken bottle.
Burgess was convicted after a jury trial of assaulting his victim to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and was jailed for 26 months.
Connolly and Stephen were ordered to carry out 150 and 240 hours’ community service respectively for assaulting Miss Duncan in the October 2007 battle.
However, all three claimed the sheriff mis-directed the jury and appealed their convictions to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
But after hearing detailed legal arguments, Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton ruled, “In the present case, I am not persuaded that there was a misdirection by reason of the sheriff’s comments.
“The issue of credibility and of reliability of the witnesses was clearly left by him to the jury.”
The trial heard how the night out at the now-closed club had turned ugly when a confrontation began between Stephen and Miss Duncan on the dance floor.
Burgess, Stephen’s partner, punched Mr Singh on the face, prompting a “free for all” as they grappled on the floor and other men jumped on top of them.
The fight passed through the club and outside on to a fire escape, down a stairway and on to the public park where the men took turns to assault Mr Singh, Burgess using a broken bottle and an accomplice battering him with a tree branch.
Meanwhile, Miss Duncan was being assaulted by Connolly and Stephen, with the latter shouting abuse at her and then stamping on her stomach, chest and neck and kicking her on the face.
She said she suffered bruised arms, neck and stomach and internal injuries including a lump on her spine which caused her pain some 18 months on.
Mr Singh was left with a cut on his arm which required stitches and a torn ear that had to be glued.