Moray teen fractured intoxicated man’s skull with hammer in Buckie
A 16-year-old Keith boy carried out a hammer attack on an intoxicated man after they fought at a cash machine in Buckie.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pulled the weapon out of his rucksack to strike his victim twice on the head and fracture his skull in the East Church Street incident on the afternoon of April 1 last year.
The rucksack was later abandoned. When police who had been alerted to the assault found the rucksack, it also had a knife in it.
The youngster appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court represented by solicitor Robert Cruickshank and admitted having the blade in a public place without reasonable excuse.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting the man to his severe injury and danger of his life.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald heard that the first time offender, who had since been placed on a community payback order for a subsequent offence, told police on his arrest: "What do you think? The guy came towards me, he had something wrong with him. I pulled it out (the hammer) and hit him.
"If I wanted to kill him I would have kept going. I was scared. He was still moving when I left."
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that the pair were at a cash machine near a bus stop "when, for an unknown reason, words were exchanged.
"Both became aggressive, they exchanged punches. The accused pulled the hammer out of his rucksack and struck the man twice, causing him to fall to the pavement.
"The accused walked away and the complainer got up in an aggressive manner but was held back by witnesses. He had a fractured skull, a one inch laceration to his head and bruising to his brain." Ms Duffy-Welsh went on.
Deferring sentence until February 25 for a background report and a restriction of liberty order assessment, Sheriff Macdonald told him: "You are a young man and you are in serious trouble."