Three people have gone on trial accused of attacking a former soldier in a row over a garden shed.
George MacPhee, 49, his 18-year-old son Jordan, both of 17 Chapelton Place, Muir of Ord, and a 17-year-old youth who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny assaulting James Besant.
They are accused of placing him in a headlock, repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body, knocking him to the ground, stamping on his body and spitting at him, all to his injury, on August 28.
The 17-year-old and Jordan MacPhee also deny damaging a Ford Fiesta belonging to Mr Besant’s wife Helen by punching the bonnet and denting it.
Mr Besant, of Marybank, told Sheriff James Scott that he had gone to speak to MacPhee sen after a row between him and Mrs Besant about a shed.
The ex-paratrooper told Inverness Sheriff Court: “He made racist remarks to her and she was upset.
“I drove there to talk to him about it like adults. I was not angry. But he came out of the house with a few others and he punched me in the stomach.
“I punched him back in the face and cut his lip. Then Jordan began kicking me in the groin and the face as I bent down to protect myself.”
Mr Besant said all three began punching and kicking him while he was on the ground and stamping on his face.
He denied first butting MacPhee sen, who has lodged a special defence of self defence.
The 17-year-old told the court that he saw Mr Besant “come storming down the drive” and deliver a butt before he and MacPhee sen ended up on the ground.
The trial was adjourned until June 28.
