An aspiring football coach has been locked up after savagely attacking a man in an Aberdeen city centre graveyard as he tried to feed the pigeons.
Andrew McInally, known as Morrice, set about his victim in St Nicholas Graveyard when he refused to hand over his straw hat to a teen girl.
Morrice, 27, along with another male, repeatedly punched the innocent man to the head, knocking him to the ground, and continued to kick him on the body and head, knocking several teeth out.
The attacker, who is taking on a football coaching course while in prison, has now been jailed for nine months over the brutal beating.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the victim, who has since passed away for unrelated reasons, went to the graveyard on Union Street with bird seed at 4pm on August 18 last year.
‘He was unsure where his teeth went’
Mr Middleton said: “The complainer sat down on a bench at the locus, and he placed his blue backpack to his left-hand side. He was wearing a straw hat.
“About 4.15pm, a male and a female, aged about 15 years old, approached him.
“The female asked for his hat. The complainer said no and continued to feed the pigeons.
“The male continued to request the hat. He kept telling them no and asked them to leave him alone.”
The male then called over a second female and told her the complainer was “trying to get the first female’s phone number”.
It was thought this was an attempt to get a negative reaction from the second female.
Mr Middleton said: “The accused walked straight over and punched the complainer twice to the right-hand side of his face suddenly and without warning.”
The other male then also punched the man, who was still sitting on the bench.
As the attack continued, the man “placed his arms over his head in an attempt to protect his head and fell off the bench onto the ground”.
Mr Middleton added: “Upon falling to the ground, he felt multiple kicks and punches to his head and body.
Andrew McInally ‘very much regrets’ attacking man at Aberdeen graveyard
“The complainer screamed ‘what have I done?’ multiple times in an attempt to get the accused to stop.
“The accused continued to assault the complainer, resulting in him feeling two of his back teeth falling out.”
Eventually, the assault came to an end and the victim managed to contact the police.
He was left with a 1cm cut to the left of his forehead, red marks on his scalp and a visible gap in his teeth.
Morrice was later traced and arrested back at the graveyard, but not without a struggle, tensing his arms and body and trying to pull away from officers.
While under caution, he told officers: “If the assault was to do with that coloured boy from earlier, he was asking 14-year-olds for their phone number.”
Morrice, of Aulton Court, Aberdeen, pled guilty to assault to injury and resisting, obstructing or hindering police.
Defence agent George Mathers said his client’s father was terminally ill and his partner was struggling to look after four young children alone.
‘Significant and extremely unpleasant’
He explained Morrice suffered from a number of mental health issues resulting in him acting “on impulse without thinking them through”.
The court heard he also has borderline personality disorder and experiences paranoia.
Mr Mathers said his client developed an alcohol problem after suffering an injury and that recreational drug use led to a cocaine addiction.
He said: “He’s very sorry. He asked me to emphasise he very much regrets becoming involved in this.
“He’d been drinking most of the day with others in the graveyard.”
The solicitor said Morrice was engaging in a football training course in prison.
He added: “He was a talented footballer and is still interested in football and getting on with that course as a coach.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller described the assault as “significant and extremely unpleasant”.
He jailed Morrice for nine months.
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