Drunk assaulted shopkeeper after funeral

A MAN, who had been drinking after attending a funeral, assaulted a shopkeeper when he refused to sell him cigarettes as the shop was closing.

Colin Walker, 34, a prisoner in Saughton, was today jailed for nine months for punching Wijdan Al-Khamis in Yeaman Place, Edinburgh, on March 30 this year, while wearing a knuckleduster.

Walker had previously admitted the attack at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and sentence had been deferred for background reports.

Sheriff Alistair Noble was told that Mr Al-Khamis was going to his car after refusing to serve Walker and closing the shop just after midnight, when Walker approached and attacked him. The victim had three stitches inserted in a facial laceration at the city's Royal Infirmary.

Defence solicitor, Julie Livingstone, told Sheriff Noble that the knuckleduster had not belonged to her client. It had been on the dashboard of his victim's car and he had grabbed it. "That does not get away from the fact that he struck the shopkeeper on the head with it" she said.

Her client, she added, had a problem with alcohol and the attack had been alcohol-related. Walker, she said, had been drinking after attending a funeral earlier in the day. He was now seeking help to tackle his abuse of alcohol.