A man who defended himself by striking his attacker with a bystander’s crutches has found himself in the dock after his victim was later rushed to hospital with a bleed on the brain.
Ben Michie, 29, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted assaulting the man by striking him to the head with a crutch, causing severe injury and endangering his life.
In the hours following the attack, his victim became unresponsive and was rushed to hospital with a hematoma and fractured skull.
His injuries were described by medics at the time as “life-threatening”.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan accepted there had been “a degree of provocation” when Michie assaulted his victim by striking him on the head with a crutch outside Prohibition nightclub.
Michie grabbed crutch from bystander
Fiscal depute David Ballock told the court that a group of friends had been on a night out in Aberdeen and ended up at the nightclub on May 1 last year.
Exiting Prohibition in the early hours, they began chatting to friends on Langstane Place when an argument broke out with Michie.
“One man approached the accused and pushed him against a wall,” Mr Ballock said.
“The accused then pushed him causing him to move out onto the road. The man returned and again pushed the accused against the wall before headbutting the accused.”
Michie then grabbed a crutch from one of the bystanders and began swinging it at the man.
He struck the man several times to the body before swinging for the final time where he hit him across the head.
As the fight broke up, Michie left the area and the man returned to his hotel room with a friend – where he continued to complain about a constant ringing in his ears.
When the man’s partner returned to the room later, she saw him enter the bathroom where he began being violently sick.
She heard him say his head didn’t “feel right”.
The woman was on the phone to the emergency services when she saw him become unresponsive as he lay on the bed.
When paramedics arrived, they found the man on the floor where he was groaning and drooling from his mouth and rushed him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
A CT scan showed that he had suffered an extradural hematoma – a bleed on the brain – which required emergency surgery and was considered by doctors to be life-threatening.
In the dock, Michie pleaded guilty to one charge of assault to severe injury and danger to life.
‘He is regretful, apologetic and remorseful’
After the court was shown CCTV of the incident, defence solicitor Christopher Maitland said that his client had actually been punched three times to the face prior to being headbutted.
“Mr Michie only reacted after he had been headbutted but of course, his reaction was over the score,” he said.
Mr Maitland said Michie felt “extremely guilty” that his actions could have potentially led to someone losing their life.
“He is devastated and recognises the seriousness of his actions – he is regretful, apologetic and remorseful,” the solicitor added.
Sentencing Michie, Sheriff Graham Buchanan told him that had his victim not had “reasonably swift medical treatment” he could have suffered danger to his life.
He said that after viewing the CCTV footage he accepted that there was a “degree of provocation” prior to the crutches assault.
“In view of this level of provocation, and the fact that you have shown significant regret and remorse for what you did, I’m persuaded that I can deal with this by way of a direct alternative to a prison sentence,” the sheriff said.
Sheriff Buchanan made Michie, of Sunnyside Court, Portlethen, subject to a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work.
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