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A thug who punched and head-butted a disabled man after taunting him on a busy bus has been ordered to carry out 200 hours community service.

Steven Davidson was left battered and bleeding after Ian Brown chased the bus he was travelling on in order to attack him. Mr Davidson's partner Susan Wright said Brown had picked on him for years after singling him out "because of his learning difficulties".

Big Issue seller Brown had been warned he could be given a custodial sentence having previously been jailed for five years for assault and robbery. Mr Davidson and Ms Wright had also called for him to be imprisoned.

However, at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday, Sheriff Kathrine Mackie said that while the offence merited a custodial sentence, she said the fact that Brown had not been in trouble since 2002 meant she was able to give him community service as a direct alternative.

Brown also told social workers that he had gotten into a fight with Mr Davidson but his solicitor, Graeme Clark, said: "He has to accept that it was an assault and that he started it."

Sheriff Mackie said she had noted his attempt to "attach blame" to Mr Davidson, adding: "The circumstances of this assault appear to me to be a very deliberate attack on your part going to some bother to actually get yourself on to the bus where the assault took place."

At a previous hearing, the court heard father-of-one, Mr Davidson, had been on a bus on Portobello High Street, heading to a training session with his special needs football team, when he was attacked.

Mr Davidson said: "I was on the bus and Ian Brown was coming out of a shop with a paper. He started shouting at me and calling me names. I shouted back, 'I'm not, you are'.

"Then he got into his car and drove after the bus to the next stop. He came up to me and said, "What did you say?", then he head-butted me in the face. My nose was bleeding then he started punching me too. I knew I couldn't do anything so I waited for him to stop."

Mr Davidson, who suffered brain damage from birth after being starved of oxygen in the womb, added: "I think he's a very dangerous person and he shouldn't be allowed to do it again to someone else.

"He should be put behind bars for what he did to me. Picking on me was very cowardly."

Sentencing on 52-year-old Brown had been deferred for background reports after  he plead guilty to head-butting and punching 42-year-old Mr Davidson in the face.

Mr Davidson, who lives with 32-year-old Ms Wright and their six-year-old daughter, Chelsea, suffered a burst nose in the attack, as well as a cut to his eye and scratches.

Police were called by the driver of the number 26 bus following the attack at around 4.30pm on May 13 last year. Brown, from Edinburgh's Abbeyhill area, was arrested by officers.

Ms Wright said: "Ian Brown knew who Steven was, because they lived in the same area, and that he was a vulnerable person. Brown is someone who picks on the weak because he doesn't want them to fight back. He was always picking on Steven because of his learning difficulties.

"The whole thing has been very stressful for Steven. He's more afraid to go out on his own now. Brown deserves a jail sentence for what he did to Steven, and to protect other vulnerable people."

Ex-con Brown is a well known Big Issue seller in Edinburgh city centre. However, on Friday, a spokesperson at the magazine said he had been suspended pending investigation.