WILLIAM SIMPSON v. PROCURATOR FISCAL, DUNDEE

[1] William Simpson pled guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court at a trial diet to a charge of having assaulted the complainer by punching him on the head, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly punching him on the head and kicking him on his body to his injury. He was sentenced to a period of 11 months detention reduced from 12 months in the light of his plea. The sheriff also imposed a Football Banning Order for 30 months which is not appealed against, the relevant ground not having passed the sift.

[3] The description of events that the appellant provided to the social worker who prepared a report for the court sought to minimise matters to an extent that did not accord with what was shown on the CCTV. Also, the appellant asserted that the event was not football related. The sheriff did not accept that assertion and we can see that he had good grounds for refusing to do so.

[4] The appellant was a first offender. He had been drinking at the time of this offence. The court report assessed him as being of low risk.

[5] The sheriff explains in his report at paragraph 6 what view he took of this assault. He said this:

[7] Mr Gilfedder submitted that the appellant had had a short sharp shock of detention. He had served almost eight weeks of his sentence before being released on interim liberation. This court should, he submitted, consider imposing a community payback order with a condition of unpaid work as an alternative to detention. If that was not the appropriate disposal then he submitted that the sentence imposed was excessive given that the maximum available to the sheriff had been selected and given that the appellant was a first offender.