An armed robber who claimed he was ready to quit the north-east to start a new life in the Alps is back behind bars after attacking a shopkeeper who refused to sell him alcohol.
Paul Macklin, who has been in and out of prison for 20 years, was today jailed for nine months after he admitted punching and repeatedly kicking Alexander Roy outside the Co-Operative Food at Aberdeen’s Cornhill Shopping Arcade.
The former Gordonstoun pupil also admitted leading police on a high speed chase through the city centre.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the assault happened on December 14 last year after Macklin had gone into the shop to buy some alcohol, but Mr Roy refused as he thought the 41-year-old was already drunk.
The court heard Macklin left the shop but later donned a hat that covered his face and approached Mr Roy as he was leaving his work.
Fiscal depute Ruairidh McAlister said Macklin then punched Mr Roy on the face, causing him to fall to the ground.
As he was laying there, Macklin continued to assault him and repeatedly kicked him on the head, and shouted “this is just a warning”, Mr McAlister added.
The court heard Mr Roy’s two colleagues tried to get Macklin, of Moir Drive, Aberdeen, to stop, but he continued. He eventually stopped and ran away.
Macklin today also admitted driving dangerously on May 22 this year.
The court heard police had noticed him standing beside a car at the retail park beside the beach, and that when Macklin spotted them he took off in the car.
Mr McAlister said officer followed him and turned on their blue lights, prompting Macklin to drive at “excessive speeds” across the city, failing to stop at red lights. He eventually abandoned the car in the Cornhill area of Aberdeen and ran away, but was caught by officers.
Before sentencing Macklin this morning, Sheriff Annella Cowan was handed a letter from him to victim Mr Roy apologising for his behaviour and explaining why he had committed the offence.
Defence agent Graeme Morrison told the court his client had spent a substantial amount of time in prison, normally for “sober and calculated offences” which were thoroughly thought out, but on this occasion he had carried out the assault while “extremely drunk”.
Sheriff Cowan told Macklin: “As far as the matter of assault is concerned I am told that you were masked and had a hat on. That makes it extremely serious. The content of the letter I’ve acknowledged. It would have been a sentence of one year in prison however I will reduce that to one of nine months for your early plea.”
He was also sentenced to four months in prison for the dangerous driving charge, which will run concurrently.
Macklin was released from prison in May last year after serving nearly 10 years for threatening two police officers with a gun in 2003 – a conviction he is still fighting to overturn.
In 1994, he was jailed for eight years for his part in an attempted £300,000 wages heist at a council depot at Kittybrewster in Aberdeen. When approached by police, Macklin hijacked a motorist at gunpoint to make his getaway.
In an exclusive interview with the Press and Journal last year, Macklin – who comes from a family of surgeons and barristers and whose father is a retired oil boss – acknowledged he had thrown away his privileges to pursue a life of violence and claimed crime gave him the same rush as his beloved adrenalin sports.