A Beauly man who fractured the skull of a stranger in a nightclub after he kissed his girlfriend narrowly avoided jail yesterday.
Violent Neil Fraser was sentenced to the maximum 300 hours of unpaid work at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The court heard earlier that police had arrested the wrong man for the serious assault on Liam Tykler, who needed surgery for the head injury.
And in a second blunder, staff at the accident and emergency unit of Raigmore Hospital in the city sent the victim home after declaring he was only suffering from ‘ a bad hangover’, fiscal Roderick Urquhart told Sheriff Margaret Neilson.
It took police several months before they eventually caught up with the correct assailant.
Yesterday, the correct Neil Fraser, of 8 Croyard Park, Beauly, appeared for sentence after admitting a charge of assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment earlier this month.
The incident happened on June 15, 2014 at Miami Nightclub.
Mr Urquhart told the court: “Fraser came over and head-butted Mr Tykler. He was thrown out by a steward who actually knew Fraser. It was thought at that time the incident wasn’t too serious.
“But the following morning, Mr Tykler was complaining of a headache and went to casualty. He was sent home after being declared as suffering from a bad hang-over.
“When it became clear that the incident was more serious, police spoke to the member of staff and were given the name Neil Fraser and a brief description of where he was from and what he looked like.
“However the wrong Neil Fraser was arrested and he made a no comment interview to police. It was only some months later it was confirmed that he was the wrong Neil Fraser.
“Police tracked down another Neil Fraser, obtained photographs of him, showed them to the member of staff and the correct Neil Fraser was apprehended and charged.”
Sheriff Neilson told Fraser: “Given your previous good character, I will deal with it by a community payback order as a direct alternative to imprisonment.”
