News / Scalloway man went berserk
A SHETLAND man who went on the rampage with a hockey stick, assaulting a young woman and leaving a man in hospital, must wait one month to be sentenced at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
Alan Devine, of 15 Undirhoul, Scalloway, admitted three charges of assault on 19 September last year, when he appeared yesterday (Wednesday).
The court heard that the 46 year old father was drunk and angry when he confronted a group of friends as they came out of a pub on Scalloway’s Main Street.
Efforts to calm him down only seemed to make him worse, and he punched his male victim in the head knocking him to the ground.
After being restrained Devine ran away, only to go home and arm himself with a hockey stick.
When he returned to confront the youngsters once again, the young woman approached him to protect her friends, but he knocked her to the ground and struck her on the hand with the hockey stick.
One of her friends managed to grab the hockey stick off Devine and threw it into a nearby bush, but he retrieved it and when the group of friends reassembled further down the street he attacked the man he had punched earlier.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said he ran towards the man and without any warning hit him on the head with the stick, knocking him to the ground where he used the weapon to repeatedly hit him on the head and body.
Mr Mackenzie said: “At this point he was shouting: ‘No one fucks with big Al. I will fucking kill you.’”
The police were called and an ambulance took the hurt man to Lerwick’s Gilbert Bain Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries to his head.
When police interviewed Devine the following evening he told them he could not remember anything about what had happened as he had been so drunk. “He can’t offer any explanation for his actions,” Mr Mackenzie said.
Sheriff Graeme Napier deferred sentence for four weeks to allow background reports to be compiled.
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