Four people who launched vicious and unprovoked assaults on staff and customers at two pubs in Keith have been locked up.
Debbie Baillie, Kirstie Kelly (also known as Balcezak), Anthony McPhee and Lee McPhee carried out the brutal attacks on three men and two women at the Crown Inn and Commerical Hotel in the town.
Harrowing footage of their violent rampage was played to Inverness Sheriff Court and showed a customer being glassed and another struck over the head by an electric heater.
Barmaids from both pubs were also dragged from behind their bars and beaten while the customers were kicked, punched and stamped on.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that the attacks began soon after the group entered the Crown Inn in Reidhaven Square on February 18 last year.
She said that after walking into the pub Anthony McPhee, 36, began to talk with a man who was sitting at the bar, while the rest of the group went through to the pool room.
Mrs Gair said the conversation was “friendly at first, but then became increasingly hostile”.
Soon after this simultaneous attacks were launched on the 48-year-old customer and a female member of staff who was working behind the bar.
Kirstie Kelly, 34, who had returned from the pool room and was putting money in the jukebox, moved suddenly and seized the 54-year-old woman by the hair, pulling her out from behind the bar before repeatedly punching and kicking her on the head and body.
“The woman sustained bruising to her neck behind her ear, her head was tender to the touch and she had a sore back and legs,” Mrs Gair said.
While this was happening Anthony McPhee punched the male customer in the head, knocking him to the ground.
The man got up but went down again after repeated punches to the head and body.
Victim’s eye socket and cheekbone fractured
“He held his head in his hands, at which point Anthony McPhee kicked him to the head,” the fiscal depute said.
When the man got up again, Lee McPhee joined the attack, glassing him over the head before punching him.
His attack was stopped by the two females and Anthony McPhee, who were seen on the CCTV to drag him away.
But Anthony McPhee then continued to attack the man, punching him to the floor, before Lee McPhee, 19, kicked him in the head.
The man was left with a fractured left eye socket and fractures to his cheekbone.
He also suffered a burst blood vessel in his left eye and a two-centimetre cut below his left eye that needed glueing, not to mention bruising to his head and body.
After the attack the four left The Crown Inn and headed to the nearby Commerical Hotel on Mid Street.
When they arrived, just after 6pm, a man was having a drink at the bar and a woman was serving.
As soon as the group arrived, McPhee “without apparent cause” began acting aggressively to the other customer.
They were asked to leave by the barmaid but did not.
Anthony McPhee punched the seated man twice in the head. This was followed by punches from Lee McPhee, with the assault moving into a hallway.
CCTV showed Anthony McPhee speaking to a man, who was wearing a leg brace, and the pair shook hands. But moments later Lee McPhee swung a sudden and seemingly unprovoked punch at the 42-year-old before the two began to grapple.
Anthony McPhee then joined in and the group moved back through to the main bar, where the McPhees continued the vicious assault, repeatedly punching and kicking the man and headbutting him.
When he fell to the floor they stamped on his body and head, the court was told. Lee McPhee ended the attack by hitting the victim over the head with an electric heater.
During the fracas, the 27-year-old barmaid had attempted to call police on her phone, but this was noticed by Kelly, who shouted at her to stop.
Four remanded in custody
Kelly and Baillie, 22, then pulled the woman from behind the bar to the ground and repeatedly kicked her on the head and body. Lee McPhee also joined in the attack, Mrs Gair said.
The woman was left with two bald patches, swelling to her head and bruising to her temple and forearm.
Baillie, Kelly and the McPhees pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the attacks.
Baillie admitted a single charge of assault to injury.
Kelly, of Blackmuir Cottages, Keith, pled guilty to two charges of assault to injury.
Lee McPhee, of Regent Street, Keith, tendered guilty pleas to charges of assault, assault to injury, assault to severe injury and assault to severe injury and danger of life.
Anthony McPhee, a prisoner at HMP Inverness, admitted assault, assault to severe injury and assault to severe injury and danger of life.
Sheriff Sara Matheson deferred sentencing on the group to allow for reports to be prepared.
She also rejected motions from defence solicitors that bail be continued for Baillie and Kelly to allow them to make arrangements for the care of their children.
All four were remanded in custody until the case calls for sentencing next month.
