A MAN who punched another man to the face more than a dozen times during a pub fight has been ordered to wear an electronic tag and carry out unpaid work as a punishment.

Blair Dobbie struck the man to the head 13 times in retaliation after he had been assaulted first during the row at Porters Bar, Piershill, Edinburgh last year.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that the other man was drinking in the bar when 39-year-old Dobbie entered at about 3.15pm on August 30.

Following a short verbal exchange, Dobbie was headbutted twice to the face and a struggle ensued between the two men. Dobbie managed to get on top of his assailant and straddled him before delivering a flurry of punches to the man’s head, all to his severe injury.

Dobbie, of Weavers Loan, Aberlady, left the premises soon after and a bar worker subsequently contacted the police.

The court heard that the other man was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he was treated for a series of facial injuries including an eight-centimetre cut above his left eye and one-centimetre laceration above his right eye.

The man also suffered bruising and swelling to his face and it was discovered that he had a fracture to his right eye socket.

Electronic tag

Police officers viewed the bar’s CCTV footage of the incident and Dobbie was identified and later arrested and charged.

Dobbie pleaded guilty to the offence during a court appearance last month and he returned to the dock for sentencing last Wednesday.

Sheriff Ian Nicol issued a community payback order where Dobbie will have to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

The sheriff also said that the offender would have to wear an electronic tag and stay within his home address between 7pm and 6am each night for the next six months.

Dobbie pleaded guilty to assaulting a man by sitting astride him and repeatedly punching him on the head, all to his severe injury, at Porters Bar, Piershill Road, Edinburgh, on August 30 last year.

He also had a not guilty plea accepted by the Crown to possessing a quantity of cocaine at St Leonard’s Police Station, Edinburgh, on the same date.