A would-be have-a-go hero was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious when he tried to help a youth who had been threatened.
The youngster had been playing football in Inverurie with a pal when Sandy Stewart approached with a group of nine other teens and demanded he apologise to his friend by kissing his feet.
The confrontation ended when the youth ran to the nearby Commercial Inn pub, where he asked two older bystanders for help.
One of the bystanders headbutted Stewart, 18, who responded by punching then kicking him in the head, leaving him on the ground unconscious.
Fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the first complainer had been playing football on Market Green in Inverurie at around 7.30pm on September 6 last year, when he was approached by “a group of 10 youths” including Stewart.
Smith shouted at him: “Are you chatting ****?”
The youth ignored him but Stewart demanded that he bend down and apologise to his friend over a previous incident, even ordering him to kiss his pal’s feet.
When the youth refused, Stewart said he would receive a “right hook to the jaw” – prompting the scared youth to run to the pub and ask for help.
The two bystanders, who didn’t know either party, crossed the road and approached Stewart in a bid to get them to move on.
‘Shut up or you’re next’
However one witness said one of the bystanders, the second complainer, “may have headbutted the accused”.
Ms MacVicar said: “The accused squared up to the man and then punched him to the face.
“The complainer stumbled forward. The accused then kicked him to the head.
“The complainer was unconscious for around two minutes as a result.”
Stewart then left the scene on his bicycle and, when asked by the second bystander where he was going, replied: “Shut up or you’re next.”
His victim was left with a cut lip that required stitches and damage to one of his front teeth.
When Stewart was cautioned and charged, he said: “He headbutted me and I can’t remember anything after that.”
Stewart ordered to pay compensation
Stewart, of Coutens Place, Oldmeldrum, pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and to assault to severe injury and disfigurement.
Defence agent Iain Hingston said his client was indeed headbutted by the second complainer, but accepted Stewart went beyond anything that could be considered self-defence.
He added the initial incident was “clearly very unpleasant”, and that Stewart was “embarrassed and ashamed about what happened”.
Mr Hingston said: “He needs to accept now that he is 18 that this kind of behaviour can’t carry on.”
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin ordered Stewart to pay the second complainer £750 in compensation, and also imposed 24 months supervision and a curfew for nine months.
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