A woman has been ordered to carry out unpaid work after punching a complete stranger at a city centre hotel.
Kim Ferguson walked up to the woman at the Rox Hotel on Market Street and punched her in the face in an unprovoked attack.
The 35-year-old’s own solicitor described the incident as “bizarre”.
Crown narrative
Fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “The time of the offence was around 12.40am in the early hours of August 3 2019.
“The complainer and her friend had been at the locus and saw the accused who approached the complainer and without warning punched her to the face with her right hand.”
Ms MacVicar said the victim was left with “slight” injuries.
She added: “The accused was found following a police check of CCTV.”
Charge
Ferguson, whose address was given as West North Street, Aberdeen, pled guilty to a charge of assault to injury.
Mitigation
Defence agent Iain Hingston said his client and her victim were not known to each other, adding: “It’s absolutely bizarre.
“She can’t explain it, even to me, other than accept what witnesses have said and what CCTV shows.
“Thankfully there’s little injury.
“At that time she was certainly fairly troubled. She’d had difficulties with periods of homelessness.”
Mr Hingston added his client had no other cases outstanding and had not been in any trouble since.
Sentence
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin handed Ferguson 90 hours of unpaid work.
