A 58-year-old man who used a metal tool to assault another man in Lerwick before dragging him out of a house has been jailed for a year.
Richard Bradley, of Lerwick’s Staney Hill, had previously pleaded guilty to the offence, which occurred at an address in the town’s Ladies Drive on 20 July last year.
His 20-year-old son Nathan Robertson, of Culswick, also admitted his part in the assault and was sentenced to a one-year community payback order and told to carry out 230 hours of unpaid work.
The father and son acted together in repeatedly punching and kicking the man on the body.
Bradley struck the man on the head with a metal knife-sharpening tool, causing him to fall to the ground, and seized him on the body and dragged him from the property to the pavement outside, all to his injury.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said it had been a “fairly protracted” incident and it was fortunate that the victim’s injuries were at the “lower end of the ‘severe’ scale”.
Nevertheless he had suffered “quite bad lacerations” to his face along with swelling and bruising all over his body.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard that Robertson was “oblivious to his father’s intention to use a weapon”. A social work report showed that he was a “hard-working young man” who had shown a “very positive attitude”.
Bradley’s defence agent Liam McAllister acknowledged he was “an older man who should know better than to act this way”.
His client’s “intentions as a protective father spilled over into totally unacceptable conduct” and it was fortunate that the matter had not resulted in more serious consequences.
While he had previous convictions for violence, there had been a “considerable” 15 year gap in offending.
McAllister said Bradley suffered from some serious health problems and was going to Aberdeen for surgery later this year to try and save his leg from amputation.
Sheriff Philip Mann said introducing “quite a dangerous weapon” into proceedings “could have had disastrous consequences” and jailed Bradley for 12 months, reduced from 16 months to reflect his guilty plea.
