Man who threw punch at agricultural show reveller causing brain injury jailed for 32 months

A man wept as he was jailed for throwing a single punch which left an agricultural show reveller with a brain injury.

Rory Hunter, 23, struck the man with one blow following an incident after the victim left a nightclub in Stirling city centre.

The victim collapsed onto the road, hitting his head on the tarmac.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard that the victim, then 23, had spent the day with a friend attending the annual Stirling Agricultural Show.

Afterwards they went a nightclub and were heading back to their hotel when a car in which Mr Hunter was a passenger hooted at them because they were on the road.

The man responded by shouting at the car, and as it passed him and his friend, the occupants of the car heard a bang as if one of them had struck the vehicle.

The driver stopped and Hunter got out and lashed out at the man.

Prosecutor Rachel Hill said: “He punched [the victim] once to the face, at which [he] immediately fell to the ground and was unconscious.”

Passers-by ran to the aid of the man, who had blood pouring from his head and face.

The victim’s friend chased after Hunter and began remonstrating with him, but the driver of the car told Hunter to get back in and then drove off.

The man was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where he had emergency surgery for bleeding on the brain.

He spent a week on a ventilator, and has been left with a permanent five inch scar on his head, a large “dent” from the surgery, and still suffers short-term memory issues. His recovery is said to be “ongoing, and heading in the right direction”.

CCTV was checked after the incident and the car was traced through the number plate.

Hunter was arrested at home at lunchtime the same day.

The court heard Hunter, who has a previous conviction for an offence involving a knuckleduster, had been wearing “two chunky rings” on his right hand when he punched the man.

Hunter, a father-of-one, of Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire appeared for sentence after earlier pleading guilty to assault to severe injury, permanent impairment, permanent disfigurement, and the danger of life.

The incident happened about 2.50am on Sunday June 11 2023 in Goosecroft Road, Stirling, near the new Travelodge building.

Hunter also admitted causing a statutory breach of the peace in an unrelated incident in October 2023 in the common close of his home in Bridge of Allan, in which he sprayed a neighbour with foam from a fire extinguisher during an disagreement about a disturbance, and damaging a moving car by pelting it with stones in March 2024 – an offence of vandalism.

Solicitor Virgil Crawford, defending, described the assault on the man as “a momentary matter – a single punch”.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Derek Hamilton jailed Hunter for 32 months.

The sheriff described the assault on the victim as “shocking”.

After reading a victim impact statement from the victim’s mother, he said his life had been changed dramatically by Hunter’s “random infliction of significant violence”.

Hunter cried in the dock throughout the hearing.

As he was handcuffed and led to the cells, his sobs filled the courtroom.