A man who assaulted an Inverness teenager in his own home did it because of a family feud that has been rumbling on for generations, a court has heard.
Jack Drummond walked into his 17-year-old victim’s home and told him: “I’m going to murder you” before punching him and encouraging another man to stab him.
His solicitor said the assaults happened against the background of a “family fallout that has gone on for a number of generations”.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that the incident happened at around 11pm on March 30 last year at an address in Inverness.
She said: “[The complainer] was within the living room area and his mother was asleep in the bedroom. He heard the front door open and someone enter.”
‘I’m going to murder you’
Ms Duffy-Welsh told the court that Drummond and a second man stepped into the living room. Drummond told the teenager: “I’m going to murder you.”
She said he then punched the teen in the face and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before shouting to the second man to “stab him”.
The 17-year-old broke free and ran into his mother’s bedroom where he was struck again as his mother attempted to stop his attacker.
The victim then fled his home, taking refuge in a nearby property.
The two attackers ran off and Drummond was later traced by police on Rosehaugh Road in a state of intoxication.
Drummond, 19, appeared for sentencing having admitted one charge of assault and another of assault to injury, as well as a breach of undertaking relating to a second incident where he was spotted outside the home of the witness at a later date.
Text exchange ‘escalated’
Solicitor Rory Gowans told the court that the assaults had occurred against the background of a family’s feud “that has gone on for a number of generations”.
He said there has been an exchange of text messages before the incident and after which: “Things have escalated.”
Mr Gowans said: “He accepts he was out of order. He had said that he should simply have blocked the messages. The problem was that he was intoxicated.”
As a direct alternative to a custodial sentence, Sheriff Margaret Neilson placed Drummond, of Craigton Avenue, on a community payback order with one year’s supervision and 150 hours of unpaid work.
She also required him to complete an offending awareness programme.
