Iron bar assault

Man collapsed in street

A MAN told a court yesterday of how he collapsed in a street in the early hours after being badly beaten by an assailant wielding an iron bar.
The attacker left Ewan Macdonald lying dazed on the ground and warned him -"Don't come back here, again".
Mr Macdonald, 27, told a jury at Wick, yesterday, that he struggled to his feet but needed to hold onto a wall to support himself and eventually the pain was so great he fell to the ground.
He was initially off work for five months, lost a lot of confidence and doesn't go out at night, unaccompanied. Mr Macdonald added: "I also developed a fear of anyone walking behind me."
Accused of the assault on July 26, last year is Corey Barnetson, 21, of 37 Kinnaird Street, Wick. He denies on indictment having assaulted Mr Macdonald with a pole or similar instrument to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment.
Mr Macdonald, a joiner, was working in Caithness at the time and had been out socialising in Wick.He was invited by a woman back to her house in Kennedy Terrace, Wick. and described what happened after he left in the early hours of the following morning..
Mr Macdonald said he had just reached the garden gate when he was attacked and fell to the ground. He described how he curled himself up in a ball to shield himself from repeated blows from what he thought was a bar. His assailant was a man and all he could remember was an aggressive voice telling him not to come back to the house or the area.
Mr Macdonald said that the attack stopped suddenly and he got a glimpse of his assailant as a silhouette, leaving the scene but could not identify him.
Mr Macdonald continued: "I tried to stand up but I was in so much pain I couldn't at first.
But, holding onto the garden wall I managed to pull myself up. I had no feeling in my right arm. I made my way down the street thinking that I needed to get to a hospital and managed to phone for an ambulance before I collapsed. I could not say what was happening at the hospital...everything was a blur."
Mr Macdonald required two operations for his right arm which involved plates and pins to be inserted and his use of it is restricted. He was advised by a surgeon that he could contract arthritis in later years and has pain in the arm when he wakens in the morning and requires to do exercises before he can get any use of the limb.
In addition to the five months off work he needed a further five weeks for a second operation and a day off every month for physiotherapy. Jurors saw photos of Mr Macdonald's injuries which also included a cut to his head and swollen legs.
Mr Macdonald said that looking back on the attack he felt that it wasn't meant to be as serious as it was. He added: "I think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Another witness, Kiera Macleod told the court she had witnessed the attack. She said she had been trying to get to sleep around 1am when she heard a metallic banging.
The 21-year-old carer thought someone was vandalising her car but on looking out of her first-floor bedroom of her then home in Oldwick Road, which joins Kennedy Terrace, in Wick, she was shocked to see a man on the ground under the street lights, being hit by someone wielding a bar.
Miss Macleod said that although he had a hood over his head, she recognised him as Barnetson.
She said that she was positive it was the accused by his height and build. He had been a neighbour when she lived in Oldwick Road and they had been in the same class at primary school.
Miss Macleod said that the man on the ground was curled up and appeared to be using his hands to shield himself from the blows. She said that she was "very scared" and "shaken up" because she was in the house on her own.
Miss Macleod continued to watch the assault as she telephoned her father and observed the victim struggling to get to his feet and holding onto a wall as he made his way down the street.
The trial will resume tomorrow. Barnetson has entered a special defence of alibi, claiming that he was at his father's house in Oldwick Road at the time of the incident.