Too much to drink

A CONSTRUCTION worker from Northern Ireland working on the Shetland gas plant was fined £800 at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday when he admitted assault and being abusive after getting drunk at a company barbecue.

Appearing from custody, Caolan McFeely, of 8 Marlborough Road, Londonderry, pled guilty to punching and striking a barman on the head at Lerwick’s Thule Bar in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The 30 year old also admitted shouting and swearing at the police who arrested him, and making sexually explicit comments to female officers at Lerwick police station.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie described his behaviour as “belligerent, aggressive and arrogant” and his comments to the two policewomen as “frankly disgusting”.

Defending, Richard Donaldson said the incident was out of character and that McFeely had been almost entirely tee total since he started working in Shetland two years ago.

However he had treated a company barbecue he attended on Wednesday evening as “an unofficial stag party” ahead of his marriage in October.

He was so drunk when he went to the Thule Bar afterwards that he was asked to leave, and it was then that he assaulted the barman.

Donaldson said McFeely wished to apologise to his victim and the police for the incident, which he could barely recall.