by Craig Borland

A FAIFLEY man carried out an unprovoked assault outside a pub in nearby Duntocher after being asked to leave the premises.

Gary MacVicar had to be escorted from The Village Tavern, Dumbarton Road, after two witnesses noticed he was involved in an altercation at the end of the bar.

But MacVicar refused to go quietly, and once outside the premises he lunged at one of the witnesses and head-butted him – fortunately causing no injury.

Fiscal depute Martina McGuigan told Dumbarton Sheriff Court the incident happened at 5.20pm on August 1, 2015, after MacVicar had rebuffed both witnesses’ attempts to calm him down outside the pub.

One of the men, despite being head-butted by MacVicar, was able to restrain him and place him on the ground after he refused to stop shouting and swearing.

Miss McGuigan said there was no information in court papers about any background to the incident.

MacVicar’s solicitor, Phil Lafferty, said: “Insofar as there is any explanation, he seems to have been drinking on top of prescribed medication.

“The bar was unfamiliar to him – there was some kind of function going on, and he felt uncomfortable, but beyond that he’s been unable to help me with regard to the circumstances.”

A background report on 41-year-old MacVicar – who had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to charges of assault and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner – suggested he would not be able to carry out any sentence of unpaid work for medical reasons, although Mr Lafferty said he had been surprised, in the light of that, to learn from MacVicar himself that he had recently secured paid work as a delivery driver.

Sheriff William Gallacher told Mr Lafferty: “I’m persuaded there would be some benefit from a formal form of supervision which would assist in relation to his mental health and alcohol issues, but there has to be some form of punishment.”

Mr Lafferty said his client would be willing to comply with a restriction of liberty order, and the sheriff agreed, ordering MacVicar to stay within his home address in Milldam Road between 8pm and 8am each day for the next three months as part of a 12-month supervision order.

“You put yourself in this situation,” Sheriff Gallacher told MacVicar. “You were in this public house. You were the one who was troublesome.

“The fact there was no significant injury is your good fortune rather than anything else.”