Three men who were filmed targeting three other people in a vicious street attack outside an Inverness bar have been jailed.
Stuart Drummond, Karl Hoxby and Joshua McCarthy were all caught on camera attacking their victims outside Sobar on Castle Street on August 29 2020.
Highland Councillor Duncan MacPherson recorded the vicious assaults on his mobile phone and handed the video footage to police.
After viewing video evidence of the trio’s violence, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told the men: “You all looked like you were enjoying yourselves”.
A fourth attacker, John Madine, failed to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing on Monday.
At a previous hearing, the court was told that Drummond, 29, Hoxby, 43, McCarthy, 22, and Madine, 41, targeted three men outside the city centre venue.
The men admitted assaulting one Sobar patron by seizing him by the neck, pushing him on the body, repeatedly punching him to the head and body and knocking him to the ground, all to his injury.
He suffered severe bruising, the court heard.
All except Hoxby pleaded guilty to assaulting a second man, a bouncer who had intervened in the initial assault, by repeatedly punching him on the head and body to his injury.
The bouncer also suffered bruising.
McCarthy and Madine admitted assaulting a third victim – the first man’s cousin – by repeatedly punching him on the head and body, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly kicking him on the head and body, all to his severe injury.
He suffered a fractured cheekbone and broken nose as well as damage to his teeth.
‘Ashamed and remorseful’
Fiscal depute Susan Love told the earlier hearing that three of the accused were out-of-town contractors doing road works in the area at the time.
The entire group had been outside in the smoking area where there was a minor altercation involving Drummond and the first victim.
Solicitor Marc Dickson for Drummond, of Cameron Road, told the court that his client had drunk “a considerable amount of alcohol” before he became “embroiled” in the incident.
He added that Drummond was “genuinely ashamed and remorseful,” having “visibly blanched” at the thought of viewing the footage of the incident.
Mr Dickson explained that Drummond “wanted to take this very public opportunity to apologise for his behaviour and to the complainer”.
But Sheriff MacDonald commented: “This was a sustained attack against both of these victims,” adding that Drummond had landed 21 punches over the course of the attack.
‘Out of character’
Solicitor David Patterson said Hoxby, of Mount Pleasant Court in Throckley, Newcastle, was a married father-of-five and a first-time offender, adding that this behaviour on the night in question was “out of character”.
He said: “It would appear to be an impulsive moment,” pointing out that a pre-sentencing report had put his client at a less than one per cent risk of repeated violent offending.
“He tells me that his experience with the police, his experience with the court has been a lesson learned,” Mr Patterson said.
But Sheriff MacDonald said Hoxby punched his victim a number of times with blows being delivered at times when the man was vulnerable and unable to defend himself.
“The harm you caused was serious,” she told the accused.
Solicitor Kevin Hughes, for McCarthy, said his client had “regret and remorse” for his behaviour and was “deeply ashamed of himself”.
“There is no excuse for his behaviour. He has indicated he lost control of himself,” he added.
‘The harm is severe’
Sheriff MacDonald reminded McCarthy, of Verdun Road in Manchester, that his victim had “sustained a fractured cheekbone, broken nose and broken teeth as a result”.
She added: “The harm is severe”.
The sheriff sentenced Drummond to 16 months imprisonment and McCarthy and Hoxby each received 12 months of jail time.
Sheriff MacDonald told them: “Over and above all that, you all looked like you were enjoying yourselves”.
She also issued a warrant for Madine, of Queens Close, Poulten le Fylde, Manchester.
