Court / Man left permanently impaired from single punch

A 23 YEAR old man from Yorkshire has been warned that there was a substantial risk of his imprisonment for a severe assault in a Lerwick bar that left his victim permanently disfigured and permanently impaired.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday how Jack Michael Goodall and a friend entered the town’s Wheel Bar in the early hours of 5 May and made a sexual approach to the complainer on the dance floor.

When told to back off Goodall, of Conway Street, Barnsley, punched his victim without any warning on his head in a way that “instantly incapacitated” him.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that the victim only regained consciousness 15 minutes later when he was already in an ambulance.

The victim suffered a fractured jaw, an one and half inch long laceration on the back of his head, a further cut to his chin, and swelling to his head.

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Triggered by bleeding from his ear, an emergency CT scan revealed that there was no damage to the brain.

The fiscal said that healing the fractured jaw had been a long and painful process, and added that he continued to suffer mentally and feels fear and discomfort when dealing with strangers.

Defence solicitor Tommy Allan appealed to the court that the case could be dealt with in a non-custodial manner, saying his client was in a position to pay a substantial fine as he had his own company that was working in Cyprus.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank asked for social inquiry and restriction of liberty reports and deferred sentence until 27 March.