Security firm boss jailed for assault

Jun 4 2009 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

A HAMILTON security firm boss was this week jailed for 10 months for a vicious attack on a man outside a town pub.

James ‘Joker’ Steele admitted repeatedly punching Ian McMahon at the Auld Hoose public house in Low Waters Road on August 3, 2008.

However, 35-year-old Steele, of Alness Street, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge which deleted mention of kicking Mr McMahon and permanently disfiguring him.

Mr McMahon was off work for three months following the assault and had to have a titanium plate and screws inserted into his lower left jaw.

He has also been left with blurred vision and numbness to the left side of his face due to nerve damage.

Further injuries included fractures to his right cheekbone, nose and lower left jaw.

Mr McMahon had been out for a drink in the pub with his wife, friend Eddie Scott and Scott’s girlfriend at around 9pm that night.

A verbal exchange between Scott and Steele took place in which Steele is alleged to have said: ‘What the f*** are you looking at, big yin?’

Scott punched Steele on the face before attacking an unidentified man in Steele’s company.

The altercation spilled out into the street and Mr McMahon followed. However, the complainer could not remember anything from the moment he stepped outside the pub.

Evidence of the incident was captured on CCTV footage.

Steele’s advocate, Donald Findlay QC, said Steele was angry at himself for getting involved in the altercation and for assaulting Mr McMahon.

The incident, he told Sheriff Ray Small, had not been of his client’s making and Steele had been “caught in the middle”.

Mr Findlay said Steele thought the complainer was going for something inside his jacket and this was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.

Steele then went over and punched Mr McMahon three or four times.

The advocate had insisted Steele had left his criminal past behind him and his involvement was “desperately unfortunate.”

Steel had been jailed at the High Court in Glasgow in 2004 for 45 months on a charge of possession with intent to supply drugs. It was later reduced to three years on appeal.

Mr Findlay told Sheriff Small: “Your lordship will see from his record that Mr Steele is a man who will act if provoked. If people use violence toward him he reacts. This is what we have here – considerable provocation”.

He asked Sheriff Small to consider options other than imprisonment, adding: “He takes home £600 weekly from the business and is in a position to pay a significant monetary penalty.”

Referring to the CCTV evidence, Sheriff Ray Small told the accused he’d had two chances to leave the scene but had not taken them.

Given the serious injuries he had inflicted and his record – which also includes assaults including assault to severe injury – no other disposal other than a custodial one was appropriate.