An Inverness man who broke another man’s nose in a rammy on board a train, had sentence deferred for good behaviour at the city’s sheriff court today.
The court heard that banter between football team-mates turned violent on a journey back to Inverness from a race night in Beauly to raise funds for a local amateur football side on April 13 last year.
Weigh-bridge operator Dean Allison, 20, of 10 Bell Tower, Inverness, broke a 32-year-old man’s nose with a punch after a row broke out between him and two couples.
Allison denied assaulting construction site manager Paul Mackintosh, of Inverness, and racially abusing Mr Mackintosh’s Polish partner Kati Brzoska.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson found Allison guilty of the assault after rejecting his special defence of self-defence, but found the racial breach of the peace not proven.
Mr Mackintosh said he, his partner and friends Ryan and Erin Rutherford had met Allison at the station. Good-natured banter continued on the train.
However it all turned nasty as comments were made about Allison and Mr Rutherford’s abilities on the playing field.
Mr Mackintosh admitted he was annoyed at Allison’s remarks but denied a suggestion by defence lawyer Marc Dickson that he was aggressive or had made a threatening move towards his client.
He said he had to have an operation to reset his nose and there had been nerve damage to his face which affected his front teeth.
Allison told the court: “There was a lot of shouting and swearing between us all and when Paul stood up I thought something was going to happen. There were two of them and one of me. I lashed out without thinking. I shouldn’t have.”
