An Aberdeen bus driver has been jailed after assaulting and then running over an elderly passenger.
Allan Thomson pushed and dragged 74-year-old Michael McFadyen off his bus before running him over as he drove away.
Mr McFadyen suffered “catastrophic” injuries in the shocking incident and had to have his leg amputated below the knee.
Thomson, 64, denied the charges against him but was found guilty by a jury of assault and causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
The incident happened on October 23 2018 near Asda in Dyce.
Sentence was deferred for reports, but now Thomson has returned to the dock to learn his fate.
Defence agent David Sutherland highlighted his client’s lack of previous convictions and otherwise “exemplary work ethic and career”.
He said: “Mr Thomson did not intend to cause harm.
“There was no planning or premeditation but we do accept the jury’s verdict that he was convicted of dangerous driving.
“There’s at least the inference there that he ought to have known himself the risks that might arise that night.
“I suggest there was a degree of provocation given the conduct of Mr McFadyen that evening.”
Following an interjection from Sheriff Andrew Miller, Mr Sutherland clarified that he meant provocation in “layman’s terms” and not in a legal sense.
He added: “What I do say is had Mr McFadyen not been drinking to the excess he was and had he not fallen asleep on Mr Thomson’s bus then Mr Thomson would not be in court today.”
Sheriff Miller again interjected: “The same could be said about a number of points in the sequence of events that night.
“There are a number of points at which the course of events could have been brought to an end in a different way, for example by Mr Thomson not pushing Mr McFadyen from the bus in the first place.”
Mr Sutherland agreed and pointed out he remembered hearing at least one juror “gasp” on seeing CCTV footage of the push.
The solicitor went on to ask the court to impose a non-custodial sentence and argued Thomson was “unlikely to commit any further offence”.
He said the driving itself was short in both duration and distance, but accepted the injuries were “quite simply horrific”.
Address Thomson directly, the sheriff said: “The jury was satisfied it was you who instigated the physical altercation, pushing him when there was no good reason for doing so.”
Sheriff Miller labelled the assault an “unnecessary and violent act”.
He went on to say the jury had been satisfied that Thomson knew his victim was lying in the vicinity of the bus’ front wheels when he chose to drive off without carrying out checks, causing “catastrophic injuries”.
The sheriff concluded: “I’m satisfied that only a custodial sentence would represent an appropriate response from the court to the crime of which you were convicted.”
He ordered Thomson, of Kirkwall Avenue, Aberdeen, to be jailed for 18 months and imposed a driving ban for five years and nine months.
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