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This is an appeal by Evan Mason by stated case against conviction and sentence. The appellant was convicted at Dunfermline Sheriff Court of a contravention of section 41(1)(a) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. The charge narrated that on 14 January 1998 at 38 Barr Crescent, Inverkeithing, the appellant assaulted Alexander Watson, Constable, Fife Police then in the execution of his duty and struck him on the head with a wooden pole to his injury.
The sheriff accepted the three police officers who gave evidence, including D.S. Watson, as credible and reliable witnesses and he disbelieved the appellant and his girl friend. He concluded that the police had orally identified themselves as police officers and that in the particular circumstances there was really very little else the police could have done.
In reply, the advocate depute accepted that it was for the Crown to show facts and circumstances from which it could be inferred that the appellant knew that the people at the door were police. As there had been a loud announcement that they were police officers, and the sheriff found that that announcement had been heard by the appellant, the sheriff had clearly been entitled to convict.
We have decided to quash the sentence of nine months imprisonment and in what, as we have said, were unusual circumstances we propose to substitute an order for 240 hours community service.
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