A man who assaulted two schoolboys who had been “terrorising” him has escaped punishment after a sheriff decided the blows thrown were done so out of “anger and frustration”.
Amr Hamed has been handed an absolute discharge, meaning that despite admitting the offence, it is not classed as a conviction and does not go on his record.
He told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that he attacked the two boys when his frustration “boiled over” due to the students targeting his flat with antisocial behaviour.
Hamed, a software consultant and PHD student, said he had complained to both the police and the school about the teenagers – who he claims were throwing cigarette butts on his doorstep, smoking cannabis and repeatedly buzzing the doorbell of his Aberdeen home.
Fed up after days of constant antisocial behaviour, the 29-year-old punched one 15-year-old boy in the head and kneed another teenager to the face during the attack on Albert Lane on June 10, last year.
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thomson previously told the court how the boys had been loitering outside Hamed’s flat at around 10am and had planned to ring his buzzer “to cause him annoyance”, before deciding against it.
She added: “At around 10.50am on the same date the witnesses were sitting on a small wall when they were approached by the accused who asked them whether they had rung his doorbell, to which they replied that they had not.
“The accused thereafter struck one of the boys to the chin with his right knee and punched the other boy to the head with his right fist.”
‘His frustration boiled over’
Defence agent Michael Burnett told the court that at the time of the offence Hamed was working from his home where he lived with his family.
He stated that students had been loitering outside Hamed’s home and were repeatedly leaving litter, smoking cigarettes and on one occasion smoking cannabis.
“The matter escalated to the extent that cannabis was being smoked on June 3 last year and he raised a complaint with the headteacher of the school,” Mr Burnett said.
“The response he got was that he should raise the matter with the police.
“Over the next few days he continued to be harassed by these pupils and reported matters to Police Scotland and nothing was done.”
Mr Burnett explained that on the day in question Hamed saw the pair scattering cigarette butts on his front door in clear sight of him. After he spoke to them and asked them to stop they rung his buzzer repeatedly.
Schoolboys were long-term nuisance
“It’s stated by the crown that they didn’t do that, but it is his position that they did,” the solicitor added. “He then felt it was necessary to go back out, he remonstrated with them and unfortunately his frustration boiled over and here we are today.”
Hamed, an Egyptian national, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault that he struck one boy to the head with his leg and punched another pupil.
Sheriff Lesley Johnston last month deferred sentence on Hamed, now of Burntbroom Drive, Glasgow, in order for a criminal justice social work report to be carried out.
‘You’ve had this hanging over you’
Now she has handed him an absolute discharge and told him: “Importantly, I can see you have taken full responsibility for your actions and you have taken no steps to excuse your behaviour.
“There was no prior planning and you acted impulsively through frustration and anger.
“You have had this hanging over you since.”
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