A SINGLE punch brought a 38-year-old man into court for the first time in his life, and left his father-in-law with life-changing injuries.
The blow delivered by Neil Rimmer, now of 7 Springbank Road, Alyth, caused his victim’s eye socket to crumble and the eye to drop within the man’s face.
He needed to have a titanium plate inserted into his face and to wear a special face mask at night to improve blood circulation and help his body recover from the injury, which has left him with nerve damage and constant pins-and-needles, numbness and pain. He also now suffers from early stages of glaucoma, probably caused by the blow, Sheriff Patrick Hughes heard at Oban Sheriff Court last Tuesday. The men had been at a family party, at a property on Battery Terrace, Oban, watching the New Year fireworks early on January 1 this year when they fell out during ‘an argument over nonsense’, as Rimmer himself admitted.