News / Construction worker jailed for assault that left man requiring dental treatment
A CONSTRUCTION worker who assaulted his roommate because he wouldn’t leave to allow him to be alone with a woman after a night out has been sent to prison for one year.
The incident, which happened at Lerwick’s West Baila on 25 September last year, saw the victim escape naked before seeking solace in a nearby house.
Darren Pollock, Clana Road, Inverness, previously admitted assaulting the man and punching him repeatedly on the head and face, struck him with an iPad and struck him with a lamp to his severe injury.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday that the incident kicked off when Pollock, who was living in workers’ accommodation, took a woman home after a night out.
The 30 year old arrived back at around 1.50am to find his roommate asleep.
Pollock – who has been in Shetland working on the construction of the new Anderson High School – woke him up to “demand” that he leave the room as he wanted to have intercourse with the woman.
The complainer had to work the next day so he stayed in bed. Pollock went in and out of the room twice, but the third time he assaulted his roommate.
He left and returned again but this time struck him on the head with an iPad and a bedside lamp.
Pollock, however, slipped and fell, giving the victim a chance to escape. He saw a light on in a nearby house and entered, with the occupant giving him clothes before the police were called.
Mackenzie said the victim had two teeth knocked out, 2-3cm laceration on the back of his head and swelling and abrasions on his chest. The fiscal said the man had spent over £3,000 on dental treatment following the incident.
Defence agent Shahid Latif said that, while the incident was a “matter of regret” for his client, the assault needed to be placed in context.
He said the attack was “out of character and contrary to character” too, pointing to Pollock’s “exceptional work ethic” and his status as a “net contributor to society”.
Latif acknlowedged that alcohol was a “precipitating factor” in the incident and suggested it was something of a “blow-out” for his client.
“Good people sometimes do bad things and that’s what happened here,” he said.
The solicitor also pointed to how Pollock had previously experienced difficulty with his roommate.
Sheriff Philip Mann, however, failed to accept Latif’s assertion that the assault was a “spontaneous reaction” which had escalated quickly.
He said it troubled him that it was not just a “flare up and an assault which took place in one discreet period of time, but you twice left the room and you twice came back to continue the assault”.
The sheriff said “at all times it was unprovoked”, adding that the severity of the incident meant he could not justify any sentence other than time in prison.
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