Tumblers thrown in Larkhall snooker club fight

Nov 26 2009

GLASSES were thrown in a Larkhall snooker club when a row broke out between two female drinkers, a court heard this week.

The girls’ night out, which went wrong, allegedly occurred in the Thistle Snooker Club, Union Street, on September 12, 2008, the court heard.

On the first day of a trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court before Sheriff Danny Scullion, the accused Gayle Loggie denied assaulting Nicola Ralton to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

Loggie, however, lodged a special defence of self defence stating that she had first been hit by Nicola Ralton.

Giving evidence on Monday, witness Louise Clelland (19) said she had met friends Kerry Ann Ralton and Nicola Ralton in the Larkhall club around 9pm on the night of the incident.

She could not remember what she had been drinking or how much, but said she felt somewhere between sober and drunk.

An hour after her party arrived, Loggie appeared at the club with a friend.

Each group, who were sitting at different tables, spoke to one another, said Ms Clelland. However, Nicola Ralton, “kept drinking Gayle’s drink”.

Asked about the accused’s reaction by the fiscal depute Lisa Hilton, Ms Clelland said: “She didn’t react at all.”

Kerry Ann Ralton, however, told her sister not to guzzle Gayle Loggie’s drink.

Later on the witness learned from Kerry Ann Ralton that Nicola Ralton’s boyfriend had arrived to pick her up, but Nicola Ralton did not wish to go with him and “just kept dancing”.

Ms Clelland said Nicola Ralton threw a glass on the ground, but could not recall if it had smashed.

After that, she said, Loggie picked up a glass and threw it, but she was not sure where.

At that point she said Nicola Ralton and Gayle Loggie began fighting and the bar staff had to separate them.

Cross-examined by Loggie’s solicitor Ian Scott, Ms Clelland was asked whom she considered to be to blame for the incident.

She replied: “It was Nicola who started it. That’s my point of view.”

Later that day the jury unanimously found Loggie guilty of a substantially-reduced charge which made no mention of “causing (the glass) to break on (Nicola Ralton’s) head all to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement”.

The prosecutor did not move for sentence, and Loggie was released from the dock.