Inverness man jailed after stomping on unconscious victim’s head
Ill feeling erupted between two men in Inverness city centre when they had a chance encounter resulting in one having his head stamped on while he lay unconscious on the ground.
But Inverness Sheriff Court was told that staff at nearby shops helped police identify the perpetrator of the vicious assault by photographing 41-year-old Christopher Sturrock.
The incident happened on the morning of July 4 last year in the High Street at about 9.05am when Sturrock, of Millerton Avenue, Inverness saw his victim and both began to struggle.
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At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Pauline Gair told Sheriff Gary Aitken that Sturrock threw the man to the ground.
"He hit his head on the concrete rendering him unconscious and the accused stomped on his head with what appeared to be a degree of force,” she said. “Then he kicked him on the body.
"He fled the locus on his bike but a staff member from a local shop took his photograph."
Mrs Gair added that this enabled the police to trace and arrest Sturrock later in the day. The court heard that the injured man was taken to A&E in Raigmore Hospital still unconscious.
"He had a shoe mark to the right side of his face," Mrs Gair went on.
Sturrock admitted assault to injury and danger of life and had sentence deferred for a background report.
Defence solicitor Willie Young told the court: "The cause of the ill feeling between him and the victim, who is no stranger to the court, was a complaint by my client about him but the Crown decided not to take any action.
"When he encountered him, he saw red, there was a brief verbal exchange which escalated into a struggle. My client pushed him to the ground and he struck his head.
"He is not particularly proud of the way he acted on that occasion."
Jailing Sturrock for 27 months, Sheriff Sara Matheson told him: "It was a serious assault involving stamping on your victim's head while he lay unconscious on the ground with, what witnesses said, was some considerable force."
