Drunken encounter at Bathgate wedding left one guest crippled

A drunken encounter between two wedding guests left one of them crippled, a court heard.
Lee Clarke was ordered to pay £1250 compensation to victim of wedding assault.
 Picture: Vic RodrickLee Clarke was ordered to pay £1250 compensation to victim of wedding assault.
 Picture: Vic Rodrick
Lee Clarke was ordered to pay £1250 compensation to victim of wedding assault. Picture: Vic Rodrick

Neither Lee Clarke nor his victim Brian McLuskey remembered much about the skirmish because they were both so drunk.

But Clarke, 23, was seen on CCTV footage exchanging words with an “aggressive” Mr McLuskey before pushing him to the floor and punching him when he was down.

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Mr McLuskey ended up with a badly broken ankle with complex fractures to the bones on both sides. He is still in considerable pain and needs continuing medical treatment 18 months on, Livingston Sheriff Court was told.

Clarke, of Alyssum Crescent, Motherwell, earlier pled guilty on indictment to a charge of assault to severe injury and permanent impairment.

He admitted pushing Mr McLuskey, causing him to fall to the ground, and punching him on the chest at their workmate’s wedding reception in The Vu, Bathgate on 7 October 2016.

He was ordered to pay his victim £1250 compensation.

Depute fiscal Kirsty Lyons said when Mr McLuskey was taken to at St John’s hospital in nearby Livingston, where doctors found he had suffered numerous complex fractures to supporting bones on each side of his ankle. Thomas Watters, defending, said his client had been surprised when police visited him three weeks after the incident because he believed nothing of significance had happened.