A labourer who bit off part of a friend’s ear was spared jail at Inverness Sheriff Court despite having two previous convictions for violence
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
After hearing from defence solicitor Clare Russell and reading a background report, Sheriff Sara Matheson was persuaded not to jail Sandon Urquhart.
Instead, she ordered the 23-year-old to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work, be supervised by social workers for the next two years and wear an electronic tag for six months, confining him to his home in Aird Avenue, Inverness between 7pm and 7am.
She told him: “There is an opportunity to deal with matters by a community payback order. Prison would have been something like two years, and the reason I am not sending you to prison is that your mother died when you were only three, but you have made something of your life.
“You have a good work ethic.”
Ms Russell told the court Urquhart, who admitted assaulting his former friend to severe injury and permanent disfigurement “has become more settled in a new relationship and has moved in with his girlfriend”.
She added: “He has limited his alcohol consumption and stopped taking illicit substances.
“He also recognises the impact this has had on his former friend.
“Although he has two previous convictions for analogous offences in 2018, he has matured significantly since then.
“This was a ‘square go’ which got out of hand.”
Previously the court had been told that, though surgeons reattached the piece of flesh which had been quickly recovered, it failed to graft properly and had to be removed.
Urquhart, formerly of Conon Bridge, admitted assaulting the other man to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement in a car park in the Firhill area of Alness on June 9, 2020.
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told Sheriff Matheson that the other man had approached Docherty as he sat in his car.
“He acted aggressively and a struggle began and both were rolling on the ground,” she said.
“They got up and were leaning on a fence with their heads close together.”
She said Urquhart then bit the top of the man’s ear lobe off and spat it over the fence
When he was arrested, Urquhart told police officers: “I was defending myself trying to get him off me.”
