An England fan has been jailed for 12 years after trying to murder a grandfather on the day of his brother’s funeral in Aberdeen.
Michael Scott, 35, inflicted “catastrophic” injuries on his victim after deliberately ploughing his vehicle into the mourner outside a pub in the city.
Graeme Hardie, 58, was thrown in the air like “a rag doll” by the collision on July 11 last year and is now wheelchair-bound.
Scott had earlier found himself in trouble at the Staging Post pub, in Bucksburn, where Mr Hardie was among those at a wake after attending the funeral of his brother David earlier in the day.
Scott, formerly of Rosslyn Avenue, in Sunderland, had denied attempting to murder his victim at Old Meldrum Road, in Bucksburn, but was found guilty of the crime.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told him: “You were convicted by the jury of the attempted murder of Graeme Hardie, a man with whom you had an argument in a pub on the occasion of his later brother’s funeral reception.”
Lord Uist said: “You deliberately drove your car at him in order to cause him injury and you did cause the most appalling injuries which have effectively ruined his life.”
The judge pointed out that the victim sustained severe brain damage and can now do virtually nothing for himself.
Lord Uist added: “He can hardly speak and requires to be fed by means of a tube. He needs care 24 hours a day. He is prone to infection.
“You have shown no remorse for what you did to him.
“After you ran him down you careered onto a grass verge and the across one side of a dual carriageway before becoming stuck across the central reservation.”
“A conviction for attempted murder particularly where, as here, the crime has resulted in catastrophic injury must attract a lengthy sentence.”
The judge also banned Scott from driving for life following his attack with the car.
A report prepared on Scott ahead of sentencing indicated he had a propensity to use violence and aggression in a situation of conflict and posed a high risk of serious harm to the public.
Scott was also convicted of dangerous driving by driving while intoxicated and at excessive speed, of failing to provide two breath specimens and of threatening and abusive behaviour both at the bar and in a police vehicle in which he urinated and vomited.
Scott had earlier been in the pub where the World Cup semi-final between England and Croatia was being screened and where an argument broke out about football.
Jurors were told Scott got into his Skoda and revved his engine before driving at his target, who struck his head and body on the vehicle and the ground after being thrown in the air.
Defence counsel Bill Adam told the court Scott “maintains his position that he did not intentionally strike Mr Hardie with the vehicle as he drove away”.
He added: “He does sympathise with the plight of Mr Hardie. His words were that he was ‘gutted’ when he first became aware of Mr Hardie’s condition.”