A Turriff dad punched a man in the town’s car park during a thuggish outburst that wasn’t the disgraced father’s first time offending.
Derek Simpson, 38, of Erroll Place in Turriff, pled guilty to the attack, which happened at the local Tesco store’s car park on November 5 last year.
He and Simpson’s 20-year-old son Ryan, who had both also been accused of threatening and abusive behaviour towards the victim and a child, had the charge dropped after a plea deal.
Other charges that were dropped against the pair were allegations they threatened and shouted aggressively at two other people at the same location, then followed them and approached their car in a threatening manner.
The plea bargain also meant that Simpson senior no longer faced the charge of recklessly damaging a car belonging to his assault victim, while it was parked outside Turriff’s police station.
At Banff Sheriff Court on Tuesday, neither of the accused father and son appeared in front of the sheriff, but the court accepted pleas in their absences.
Sheriff Robert McDonald deferred sentencing Derek Simpson, who was already a convicted criminal before this latest offence.
A non-harassment order was requested for two of the witnesses who were present in the court building.
Simpson Snr was ordered to return to court for sentencing on January 10 next year, once criminal justice social work reports on the repeat offender have been completed.
Aberdeenshire man had existing criminal record before latest Banff Sheriff Court case
Prior to his latest court case, Derek Simpson was ordered to show that he could behave himself for six months after he pled guilty to a breach of the peace involving a doorstep row about his son’s sex life on 12 June 2022.
After he and his relatives left the Banff court building, following that hearing, Simpson Snr verbally abused a P&J reporter, threatening: “I’ll find out where you live”.
In an even earlier appearance at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, the thug – admitting to assaulting police officers on November 17 last year – was spared jail.
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