Youth 'lucky not be facing murder charge' after Grantown attack
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An 81-year-old Grantown man was attacked by a teenager who was told by a Sheriff his victim was "lucky to be still alive" and the youth was not facing a murder or culpable homicide charge in the High Court.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Aiden Beats of Cawdor Road, Nairn, was in Grantown celebrating his 18th birthday on January 29, this year and got drunk.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood said Beats got involved in an altercation in the Coppice Court sheltered housing complex and the pensioner intervened.
"The accused pushed him on the body, causing him to fall to the ground and bang his head. There was no injury."
A clearly angry Sheriff Gary Aitken told Beats he had "no right to be in the sheltered housing having got absolutely plastered to the extent that you didn't know what you were doing.
"You need to grow up quick.
"You could have been facing a jail sentence of double figures for culpable homicide or worse."
Beats, who admitted assault, was ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid community work as an alternative to prison.
