A WEAPON-wielding Greenock thug battered and hospitalised an asylum seeker in a random and unprovoked attack after offering to ‘help’ him with directions.

Craig Bonnar left the man with a scar on his scalp by meting out a brutal beating with a police-style baton.

Violent Bonnar, 31, carried out the attack after the victim and a friend had asked him a question, the sheriff court was told.

A procurator fiscal depute said: “The witness asked where they could buy cheap cigarettes and they were told they would be escorted to a nearby shop.

“The accused then produced a police-style baton and struck the victim on the top of his head causing injury.”

Bonnar was initially charged on indictment, along with a co-accused, with struggling violently with the man, severely injuring him and leaving him permanently disfigured.

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He also faced an allegation of stealing £60 in cash, however, a guilty plea to a single reduced charge of assault to severe injury was accepted by prosecutors.

The court was told that the victim and his friend had only been residing in Inverclyde for less than a month at the time of the incident.

They were walking on East Hamilton Street across from the Bubbles car wash when they were approached by Bonnar and the other male.

The attack, which took place on a footpath opposite the Arnold Clark garage at Gibshill Road was captured on the car dealership’s CCTV cameras.

The victim was treated by a doctor at Inverclyde Royal and was found to have a one-centimetre cut to the top of his head which was glued.

 

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Bonnar, who carried out the attack on June 8 last year, was due to stand trial before a sheriff and jury but pleaded guilty to the reduced charge in April.

Defence solicitor Amy Spencer said: “His record does him no favours but there is nothing for violence.

“This type of offence is not like him. “It was one strike to the top of his head, the victim should not be able to see the injury as it is covered by his hairline.”

Sheriff Neil Kinnear said the offence ‘is at the lower level of severe’, adding: “It was nasty but there are no long-term consequences.”

Lawyer Miss Spencer said: “He has been making the best of a bad situation while on remand, going to the gym and going to a programme to help him stay away from substances. “His motivation appears to me to be absolutely genuine.”

Sheriff Kinnear told Bonnar that he was left with no other option but to impose a jail term.

Bonnar was sentenced to nine months in prison.