A landlord pinned his former tenant to a supermarket wall and headbutted him because an earlier fallout had “been the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
David Breerton, 57, followed the man from Tesco in Forres shouting and swearing before grabbing him, swinging him round and striking him in the face, Elgin Sheriff Court was told.
His defence solicitor claimed the incident was the culmination of a long-running dispute between the pair and said that just hours earlier Breerton had been victim to a barrage of abuse in a Costa Coffee.
‘His nose was burst and bloodied’
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court: “The accused and the complainer are known to each other as the complainer rented a property from the accused between October 2019 and March 2020.
“During that time there were issues between the parties.”
She said that Breerton’s victim had been leaving the Tesco store in Nairn Road at around 4.45pm on January 15 this year when he heard shouting and swearing from behind him.
“He noticed the accused and another male behind him,” the fiscal added. “The accused then grabbed him by the collar and swung him around while striking him to the face on the left side of his eye.
“He got away briefly before the accused caught him, again swinging him around and holding him against the wall briefly.
“He then headbutted him on the nose before walking away. The complainer noticed his nose was burst and blooded.”
Breerton admitted a charge of assault to injury.
‘He didn’t want anything further to do with this fellow’
His defence agent Stephen Carty said there was an “in-depth” background to the pair’s fallout.
“The complainer, after a separation, was placed in supported accommodation in an amicable process by Mr Breerton and his wife,” he said.
“The situation deteriorated and the tenancy came to an end. Mr Breerton didn’t want anything further to do with this fellow.”
However, he said, his client had claimed there’d since been two years of “bad language and abuse” from the man towards his client.
Mr Carty said his client was “a man in his 50s for which this was completely out of character” and said that an earlier run-in at Costa Coffee had proven “the straw breaking the camel’s back”.
‘You’ve given yourself a criminal record’
Sheriff Robert McDonald told him: “Whatever you might have regarded as provocation or background here you still shouldn’t have acted as you did on the day in question.
“You have given yourself a criminal record as well as whatever I decide the penalty is here.”
He fined Breerton, of Councillors Walk, Forres, £520.
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