Builder fined for battering man at pub

A BUILDER who battered a man as he lay unconscious has escaped jail, but was ordered to pay his victim £2,000.

Barry Ronaldson, 31, must also do 200 hours' community service for the unprovoked attack in an Edinburgh pub.

A judge heard how postman Stuart Millan, 44, greeted Ronaldson's wife in The Oak in St John's Road, Corstorphine – and was felled by a punch.

Ronaldson was slung out of the pub, but waited outside, shouting abuse.

Advocate depute Jonathan Brodie QC, prosecuting, said when Mr Millan, came out of the bar he attacked him again, knocking him out cold and hit the unconscious man again as he lay on the ground. Mr Millan suffered a fractured skull and was off work for five months.

Ronaldson, of Carrick Knowe Place, was accused of attempted murder after the attack in July 2008. In August last year his guilty plea to a reduced charge of serious assault was accepted and an allegation that he had repeatedly stamped on his victim's head was dropped.