JUMPING over a back garden fence, a Prestonpans man attacked a man from behind before four others then set upon the victim.

James Hastie attacked Alistair Seawright as he spoke to four other men who had turned up at his front door.

Seawright had been involved in an verbal altercation with the men previously that evening and believed they had arrived at his ex-partner’s Redburn Road home in a bid to settle their differences.

But as the men spoke, Hastie jumped the fence and punched Mr Seawright on the head from behind.

The victim was knocked to the ground and left covered in blood after he was then set upon by the four men he had been speaking to.

Hastie, of Redburn Road, had denied the attack and stood trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last October.

Following the evidence, Sheriff Nigel Ross found him guilty of assault and sentence was deferred to last week for him to be of good behaviour.

Hastie, 33, returned to the Capital court last Friday and was handed a £160 fine.

During the trial, the court heard that Mr Seawright had made a comment to a group of men as he walked past them outside the row of shops at Redburn Road.

Mr Seawright had been drinking after attending a funeral that day and was staying with his then-girlfriend Kirsten Baillie at her Redburn Road home.

He was attacked by the five men later that night as he spoke to the group in his front garden.

Mr Seawright said the bad feeling between him and Hastie later continued when Hastie confronted him as he sat in his work van and punched the driver-side window, causing it to smash and shower him with glass.

Hastie’s solicitor Simon Collins claimed that Mr Seawright had been the drunken aggressor that day and had tried to chase the men with a broken vodka bottle after he had been attacked himself. Mr Seawright denied the claim.

Seton Sands worker Ms Baillie claimed she had also been assaulted by Hastie and had witnessed Mr Seawright being attacked by the five men.

The 35-year-old added that the men turning up at her door to sort out their differences had “been a set up” in a bid to get Mr Seawright outside.

Despite protesting his innocence throughout the trial, Hastie, was eventually found guilty of two charges by Sheriff Ross: assaulting Mr Seawright while acting with others by punching him to the head on July 6 last year, and recklessly punching a vehicle window, causing it to shatter.