iStockA man chewed a chunk off a pensioner’s ear after a Celtic v Rangers match.
Alistair Mackay, 53, pounced on the 67-year-old in Glasgow city centre on September 3 2023.
Rangers and Celtic had earlier played a match at Ibrox which the visitors won 0-1.
A court heard that Mackay with two friends had watched the game and drank in The Barras and Merchant City areas of the city.
The trio were walking to Glasgow Central train station when they came across the man and his friend who were strangers.
The pair heard a disturbance and saw Mackay and his friends in a physical altercation with a young man wearing a Rangers top.
The man went to separate the fight and tried to pull Mackay away.
Prosecutor Jenny Reid said: “[The man] was then involved in a struggle with Mackay and both fell to the ground.
“[The man] did not feel any pain or pressure to his ear at this time.
“However, there was no one close enough to him which would have caused the damage to his left ear.”
A witness pulled Mackay off the victim, who was bleeding profusely from his ear.
Ms Reid added: “A section of his ear appeared to be missing.”
The victim later attended hospital whee he was found to have “full thickness tissue loss of his left ear from the helix to the lobe.”
The wound was closed and he was released from hospital the next day.
Meantime, Mackay and his friends walked to Glasgow Central station.
Ms Reid said: “As he passed the Grant Arms pub, he was in possession of a piece of [the victim’s] ear in his right hand.”
Mackay, of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, turned himself in a month later following a media appeal.
Mackay pled guilty to assaulting the man to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
Sentence was deferred pending background reports until next month by Sheriff Tom Hughes who granted Mackay bail meantime.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
