Hammer attack youth acquitted

Published on Wednesday 13 August 2008 10:49

A YOUTH was cleared of a murder bid on another teenager today in a case that a judge said highlighted the "scourge of underage drinking".

Liam Bremner was acquitted of attacking Adam Aitken with a hammer after a clash over a girlfriend.

Mr Bremner, aged 16, was charged with attempting to murder Mr Aitken in the assault at Fishwives Causeway, in Edinburgh, on September 22 last year, by striking him on the head with the hammer.

But he denied the offence and maintained a special defence of self defence at his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. A jury returned a not proven verdict in the case.

A judge told the jurors after they returned their verdict that the case would have made them aware of "the scourge of underage drinking if you were not aware of it before".

Colin MacAulay QC said: "It is clear, on the night in question, quite a number of young people – 15-year-olds – were drinking and indulging in bad behaviour."

Mr Aitken, a sixteen-year-old mechanic, underwent an emergency operation after a CT scan to his brain revealed a blood clot. The court heard he would have died without medical intervention.

The former Leith Academy pupil said he had been at a house party on the night but trouble had broken out and he had got involved in fighting.

He had gone to the cycle path at Fishwives Causeway with a teenage girl who had been Mr Bremner's girlfriend and started kissing her.

He told the court Mr Bremner had arrived with a friend on a bike and came towards him and hit him with the hammer. Afterwards he got home but fell asleep and was sick.

He was later taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but was transferred for specialist surgery.

Mr Aitken admitted he had got drunk that night but denied he had a weapon.

Mr Bremner, of Portland Street, Edinburgh, also denied he was armed and said he had not been drinking.

He said his ex-girlfriend had phoned him sounding drunk after splitting up with her earlier that day. He had gone to meet her but had not expected to find her with another young man.

The apprentice gardener said a struggle broke out between him and Mr Aitken, whom he maintained had a hammer and was trying to hit him.

Mr Bremner admitted he hit the other youth with the hammer during the struggle but maintained: "If I didn't do that to him I would have got hit."