Jailed for brutal city centre attack

Mar 27 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A PERTH man suffered a detached retina and was warned he would go blind if he didn’t receive surgery after he was brutally attacked in a city centre close.

Victim Colin McCulloch’s retina was torn in two places and he spent three days in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, recovering from his operation. Perth Sheriff Court heard that his vision is “still blurry” and he was told by a doctor he would need glasses.

Depute fiscal Janine Bates added: “He has developed a cataract brought on by this injury and will require further surgery.

“Mentally, he’s wary of returning home at night and he’s much more afraid of strangers than he used to be, especially young men.”

His attacker, 21-year-old Sam Haddow, of Glendevon Road, Perth, who has a previous conviction for violence, was jailed for 18 months on Wednesday.

He pled guilty to the assault in a close at St Johnstoun’s Buildings, Charles Street, on March 18 last year.

He admitted repeatedly punching Mr McCulloch on the head, to his injury and permanent impairment.

The court was told that Mr McCulloch had been watching television about 10.45pm when he heard “a lot of noise” from the close outside.

His son, Rory, was due home from work so he went out to check that everything was alright.

He saw Haddow and his girlfriend drinking from a half bottle of vodka.

They were asked to leave but the accused took hold of Colin McCulloch’s arm and punched him twice to the head. He sustained severe bruising to his eye and was taken to the A&E Department at Perth Royal Infirmary.

Solicitor Linda Clark said that the accused and his girlfriend regularly visited a friend in the flats to drink with.

He wasn’t in and they were waiting for him, drinking the vodka and coke they had brought with them.

There was an altercation between Haddow and the older man and the assault took place.

“With hindsight, he should simply have left,” she added.

She urged Sheriff Michael Fletcher to impose a community-based sentence.

But the sheriff told Haddow: “This was a serious assault resulting in injuries which are going to have a permanent effect, it would seem, on him.

“There really was no excuse for behaviour like that. You have already been convicted on indictment for serious assault. I can’t deal with it in any other way than by a custodial sentence.”