Youths caged for ‘cowardly’ assault

Mar 19 2008 By our court reporter

TWO Lanarkshire youths were each caged for 18 months this week for carrying out a vicious assault in Hamilton town centre.

Christopher Hogg (18) and James Morrison (20) had both pleaded guilty last month to assaulting John Kerr to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

They had repeatedly kicked and stamped on John Kerr’s head and body and struck him with a bottle or similar instrument at Station Road, at its junction with Brandon Street, on April 24 last year.

A third accused, Hogg’s 17-year-old sister Sharon, of Backmuir Road, had been accused of attempting to rescue her brother from police officers in Station Road on the same date.

However, her not guilty plea to the offence had been accepted by the Crown.

Christopher Hogg’s agent told Sheriff David Bicket at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Monday that the complainer was “more than keen to enter into an incident with Mr Hogg”, adding that things went “well beyond what was contemplated at the beginning.”

The lawyer recognised that Sheriff Bicket would be considering a custodial sentence but pointed out that community service and a restriction of liberty order could be imposed as alternatives.

Morrison’s agent, Alistair Murray, said the offence stemmed from an altercation between two groups of youths.

But he added: “He fully concedes that he went totally over the top.”

Mr Murray recognised that Morrison had previous convictions for violent offences but suggested that Sheriff Bicket could impose a period of probation.

Sheriff Bicket described the attack on Mr Kerr as “cowardly” and sentenced each thug to 18 months in a Young Offenders’ Institution.

He told Hogg, of Backmuir Road, and Morrison, of Springwells Crescent, Blantyre, that there was no appropriate sentence other than a custodial one.”

Sheriff Bicket added that he would have sentenced each of them to two years’ detention had it not been for their guilty pleas.