A Fort William man who had just been released early from a two-year jail sentence for a violent assault on a local man filmed his second attack on the same victim.
After 27-year-old Dejan Watson punched and kicked the man unconscious, slapped him on the face several times before spitting on his face.
Witnesses to the savage attack heard him say as he recorded the casualty: “You like that?”
Then as one onlooker called an ambulance, Watson remarked: “He doesn’t need an ambulance. He doesn’t deserve it. Did you not see he started it.”
Watson admitted the assault to severe injury which occurred on Camanachd Crescent on August 8 this year.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank jailed him for a total of 575 days, to include the unexpired portion of his earlier jail sentence.
The sheriff said: “I see no reason why you should not serve it.”
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that there was “a history” between the two men, resulting in Watson being jailed for 24 months in December 2022 for the first attack.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that the victim appeared drunk before confronting Watson, who was out walking his dog.
A witness said that the man was the antagonistic, goading Watson and they started fighting.
“Watson got on top of him, punching him repeatedly on the head before banging his head off the road three or four times.
“Then he dragged him onto the road and kicked him several times to the head. When the man tried to get up, he was kicked in the face, knocking him unconscious.
“Then he [Watson] filmed him lying on the road, slapped him on the face several times and spat on his face,” Mrs Gair went on.
Mrs Gair added that the man “suffered a broken eye socket, and fractures to facial bones and the upper jaw. He did not require surgery”.
Defence solicitor Stephen Kennedy described the bad blood between the pair that his client had tired to put behind him.
“He made efforts to avoid him but when he encountered the man, they spoke and shook hands.
“Then he heard shortly after that the man was looking for my client. He was not expecting to meet him.”
Mr Kennedy said Watson thought that the man had a knife down his shorts and suggested he was going to stab his dog.
“Then a fight took place. He had no idea whether or not he had a knife.”
Sheriff Cruickshank told Watson, who appeared by video link: “This is a very serious assault, relating to the same complainer in December 2022. That makes matters worse.”