Pub punch

[Nwicker60]

Sheriff warns accused re-offending could mean a prison sentence

A SHERIFF has said there was no good reason for a Celtic fan to have lost his temper and punched a pub patron.

It happened at the Alexander Bain hostelry, in Wick, after the televised derby match on April 29, which ended in a 5-1 runaway win for Celtic.

Liam Farquhar, 26, punched Ben Ewing claiming he (the accused) had been provoked. Farquhar pleaded guilty at the town's sheriff court and escaped a prison sentence but was banned from the Wetherspoon pub.

Farquhar, who had been drinking, didn't remember assaulting Ben Ewing, the court was told. His solicitor, Patrick O'Dea said: "The accused knows that he allowed himself to be provoked and he has taken that on board."

Sheriff Andrew Berry said that he appreciated violence was associated with football on a regular basis but added: "In this case, your team had just won, not lost, the match. and this was 273 miles away from where the game was played."

The sheriff said that it was always worrying when people who had committed an act of violence, didn't remember anything about it and ended up serving long sentences.

Sheriff Berry told Farquhar, of 46 Nicholson Street, Wick: "If you don't mend your ways, you will end up in custody as I am running out of alternative sentences to prison. That is as plain as I can state it."

In addition to being banned from the pub for a year, Farquhar was ordered to carry out 135 hours unpaid community work."