Edinburgh man who left victim with head injury after unprovoked attack outside pub avoids jail
An Edinburgh man who left an innocent victim with a horror head injury after attacking him outside a pub has escaped a jail sentence.
Morgan Steadwood approached the victim from behind and punched him to the head outside the hostelry in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, in April last year.
The man fell to the ground as a result of the cowardly attack where he smashed his head on the pavement leaving him unconscious and with a laceration to his scalp.
The victim was rushed to Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary where he was forced to undergo a CT scan to check for a brain injury and had staples inserted to the gaping wound.
The capital’s sheriff court was told a large scale fight involving around 25 people had broken out at the town’s Dundas Street at around 2am on April 6 last year. The victim was not involved in the street battle and was leaving the area with friends when 25-year-old Steadwood ran up and sucker punched him.
Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren said the man and his friends were on the pavement and “did not want to get involved” when Steadwood had approached the man and swung a single punch.
Ms McLaren said: “[The victim] fell backwards and struck his head on the pavement and he does not recall the incident other than waking up on the ground after being knocked unconscious.”
The fiscal told the court police attended the scene and took the injured man to the hospital where he had four staples inserted to treat the head injury and Steadwood was later arrested and charged.
Steadwood pleaded guilty to a charge of assault to severe injury at Dundas Street, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, when he appeared at the capital’s sheriff court in November last year.
He returned to the dock for sentencing on Monday where defence agent Stephen Mannifield said: “The degree of violence during the assault was limited, it was a single punch.”
The lawyer told the court his client is a first offender, is now unemployed and accepts the unprovoked attack has had “a psychological impact” on the victim.
Sheriff Charles Walls was handed a victim impact statement by the Crown and acknowledged Steadwood had shown remorse for his actions. The sheriff sentenced Steadwood, of Burdiehouse, to a community payback order where he will be supervised for 18 months and will have to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work.