Penicuik thug capture on CCTV '˜stamped on head' of 61-year-old

A DRUNK thug who knocked a former pal unconscious and then stamped on his head and body is facing a jail sentence.

Martin Rogan is facing jail time.

Martin Rogan left victim George Oxtoby lying unconscious for more than an hour after he savagely attacked him from behind in a snooker club last year.

Rogan felled the unsuspecting 61-year-old with the single punch then was seen to stamp on the man before being dragged away by shocked drinkers at The Crescent Snooker Club, in Penicuik, Midlothian.

Cowardly Rogan claimed Mr Oxtoby had attacked him with a cue during an argument over a game of pool while the pair had been pals a few months previously before launching his own revenge attack.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Mr Oxtoby was still “profoundly unconscious” and had a “low response” when he arrived at the Capital’s Royal Infirmary around an hour after he had been assaulted.

Medics said if the victim had not been treated so quickly there was “a real potential danger to his life” and without medical assistance “he would not have survived”.

The court heard the pair had previously clashed over a bet on a pool game in January last year where Mr Oxtoby is said to have whacked Rogan, 35, with a cue during the bust up.

The two men, who had been friends “for many years” before the pool cue incident, then met and words were exchanged with each other in the toilet of the snooker club on August 20 last year.

CCTV shown to court showed Rogan, from Penicuik, leaving the club before re-entering and heading to the bar area where Mr Oxtoby is standing with his back to his assailant.

Rogan is then seen to swing a massive punch which leaves his victim lying unconscious on the floor of the bar. The cowardly attacker then stamps on the man’s head and body three times as he lies prone.

Rogan is now facing a jail term after Sheriff Robert Fife told him the CCTV footage was “dreadful viewing” and that “all options remain open to the court” when he returns for sentencing next month.

Rogan pleaded guilty at the city court yesterday to assaulting Mr Oxtoby by punching him to the head causing him to fall to the ground unconscious and repeatedly stamp on his head and body, to his injury and danger of life.

Fiscal depute Aiden Higgins said: “The accused and the complainer had known each other for many years. They had socialised together, drunk together and played pool together. Relations between them had changed since January 2017 because the 
complainer had struck the accused with a pool cue during an altercation – an argument over a bet on a game of 
pool.”

“On Sunday, August 20 last year the accused and the complainer came to be drinking at the locus separately.

“By the time of the incident both men had been drinking for many hours.”

Mr Higgins said Rogan had downed ten pints of lager and six Jagermeister shots before launching the vicious assault on the older man.

Sentence was deferred to June 5 for reports.

[email protected]