A man was chased through the streets, kicked and left coughing up blood after he tried to talk to a teenage girl.
Darryl Stone pled guilty to assault to injury at Inverness Sheriff Court following the city centre attack on August 4 last year.
The court heard that Stone had raced to the scene after hearing that the shirtless man had been approaching and questioning his young sister.
Fiscal depute Sharon Ralph told the court that the incident, at around 9.45pm, had been captured on CCTV.
She said: “The witness was observed running from Baron Taylors Street into Church Street, towards the Town House.”
Bar goers saw man assaulted
The footage showed Stone in pursuit, and witnesses seated in the window of a nearby bar saw the man fall to the floor before Stone kicked him on the body.
One witness described the victim as “coughing up blood” following the incident.
Police were alerted and viewed the CCTV footage, before tracing the injured man who was “hostile” and “did not wish to co-operate”.
However, he later informed officers that he had been to Raigmore Hospital where he had been diagnosed with a “small concussion”.
Solicitor Duncan Henderson, for Stone, said the incident had been sparked after his client’s mother received a phone call from a concerned relative.
Man tried to talk to teen
They had spotted the shirtless 30-year-old man attempting to talk to her 15-year-old daughter and asking her age.
Stone, a student of motor mechanics at UHI, had rushed to the scene. After this, his solicitor said, “the matter has escalated”.
“He accepts that in persuing [the complainer] he has committed an offence,” Mr Henderson added.
Sheriff Paul Reid told Stone: “I recognise the circumstances in which this took place, whilst there is an element of provocation it is nonetheless unacceptable what you have done.”
He placed him on a community payback order with 35 hours of unpaid work in the community to be completed within nine months.
