A pub customer was left blinded for life in one eye after being attacked in a lane outside a hotel in Nairn.
Gerald Grant, 41, yesterday admitted causing the permanent injury by punching victim David Hughes in the head.
Mr Hughes also suffered a fractured eye socket outside the Star Hotel in Nairn on February 5.
Fiscal depute Michelle Molley told Inverness Sheriff Court that Grant had been drinking in the same bar as Mr Hughes but at opposite ends of the saloon.
He left after an argument with another patron before returning later and asked Mr Hughes to go outside to have a word with him.
Another customer, Mark McDairmid, followed to make sure no-one was getting hurt and saw Grant punching Mr Hughes.
Ms Molley said: “Mr McDairmid told Grant to get off him, looked at Mr Hughes’ face and saw there was blood on it. He said the only way he could describe it as a mess. He said he was bleeding from the eye and around the mouth.
“Mr Hughes suffered a fractured eye socket and complete loss of vision in his left eye. He is now permanently blind in his left eye.”
Grant, meanwhile, also pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening manner towards John Deans in the town’s Merryton Crescent on a number of occasions June 30 by banging on doors and windows with his hands and a hammer, throwing a bottle at the property and threatening violence while brandishing a hammer.
That offence occurred in breach of a special bail condition, which he admitted.
Sentence on Grant was deferred until December 21 for the preparation of background reports.
