Court / Jail term for unprovoked assaults in restaurant
A MAN has been imprisoned for 20 months for a violent attack that involved four victims at Lerwick’s Great Wall Chinese restaurant in October.
Dale Henry, 37, described as a prisoner at HMP Grampian, earlier admitted the assaults that left one man needing stitches to a head wound and suffering “psychological harm”.
Henry, who appeared from custody at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday, had carried out the attack after seeing his partner embrace one of the individuals.
The incident had deeply distressed customers, some of whom had gathered for a fund raiser on behalf of those affected.
Defence agent Gregor Kelly said that Henry, who has a history of assaults, had turned over a new leaf but had reacted badly after drinking wine, to what he saw was a sexual advance on his partner.
Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie rejected this as an attempt to shift the blame to the victim.
Henry was jailed for more than four years for a serious assault in 2011.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said it had been “an inexcusable and frightening display of rage at a social event.”
He added: “As far as I am concerned it was totally unprovoked and has had a profound and lasting impact” on the principal victim who would have been more seriously injured without the intervention of the other complainants.
He sentenced Henry to 20 months in jail to run concurrent with three other sentences of six months, and backdated to 15 October when Henry was taken into custody.
If you have been affected by crime, help is available. Whether you are victim, a witness, or the accused, you can find independent, impartial, and confidential support in Shetland.
For victims of general crime:
Victim Support Shetland
Phone: 01595744524 or 0800 1601985
Web: https://victimsupport.scot/locations/victim-support-shetland/
Email: VictimSupportHighlandsIslands@victimsupportsco.org.uk
For anyone affected by crime & harm seeking a restorative approach:
Space2face
Phone: 07564 832467
Web: https://www.space2face.org
Email: info@space2face.org
For anyone affected by gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking, sexual assault, and rape:
Shetland Women’s Aid
Phone: 01595 692070
Web: https://www.shetlandwa.org
Email: office@shetlandwa.org
The Compass Centre (Shetland Rape Crisis)
Phone: 01595 744402 or 08088 010302
Web: https://www.compasscentre.org
Email: contact@compasscentre.org
For anyone affected by substance use:
Shetland Recovery Hub and Community Network
Phone: 01595 744402
Web: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075791869200
Email: recoveryhub@shetland.gov.uk
Shetland Alcohol & Drug Partnership
Phone: 01595 743060 or 07342 077789
Web: https://shetlandadp.org.uk
Email: shet.sadp@nhs.scot
Substance Use Recovery Service
Phone: 01595 743006
