A former Aberdeen daredevil left his ex’s new boyfriend with facial fractures which needed surgery after stamping on his head in a brutal late-night attack.
Robbie Borthwick had been out drinking with his ex-partner and a number of others but flew into a rage when he saw her with her new man at the end of the night.
The 26-year-old – who has previously been prosecuted for scaling Aberdeen Royal Infrmary’s car park while blindfolded – knocked his victim to the ground with a punch before following up with a stamp to his head.
His innocent victim was left with blood pouring from a wound under his right eye and needed surgery to repair several facial fractures.
Fiscal depute David Ballock told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened around 3am on December 10 last year.
Passing police tried to de-escalate the situation
He said the complainer and his partner were walking down Union Street hand-in-hand when Borthwick approached them acting “aggressively” towards the man.
Passing police officers then intervened in what appeared to be an argument regarding the woman and offered to give her a life home to de-escalate the situation.
She declined and neither party wished to make a complaint, with officers noting each of them appeared “heavily intoxicated”.
The complainer and woman crossed the road to get away from Borthwick but were followed by him.
Attacker had hopes of rekindling relationship
Mr Ballock said: “A heated exchange then followed between the complainer and the accused which escalated to the accused punching the complainer on the head resulting in him ending up on the ground.
“While he was on the ground, the accused stamped on his head before others managed to separate them.”
A member of the public flagged down police officers who noted the complainer “bleeding heavily” from a cut under his eye and transported him to hospital.
The cut was closed with stitches and he also required surgery as a result of a number of fractures to the right side of his face.
Borthwick, of Hartington Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
Defence agent Gregor Kelly said his client had been in a relationship with the woman for two-and-a-half years and “did have hopes of rekindling”.
He explained Borthwick and the woman had been on a night out together and he had not been aware of her new partner.
Victim suffered ‘physically, psychologically and financially’
Mr Kelly said: “The position is he was drunk, the complainer was drunk and the woman was perhaps the most inebriated of the lot of them.
“When the police intervened in the verbal altercation, he was trying to get her to go home for her own well-being.
“The way he viewed it was that the complainer was taking advantage of his drunk former partner.
“He was concerned she was going to do something she was going to regret.
“It wasn’t, he maintains, born out of jealousy.”
Mr Kelly said Borthwick, who previously appeared in court for scaling a 13-storey carpark while blindfolded, had no previous convictions for violence.
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Borthwick the offence was “extremely serious”.
He said the assault had had a significant impact on his victim “physically, psychologically and financially”.
As a direct alternative to prison, he ordered Borthwick to complete 225 hours of unpaid work, 12 months of supervision and to pay his victim a “token” compensation sum of £500.
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