Street brawling Falkirk offender flies back from family holiday to face the music at court

Jake McLay, 20, appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, having had pleaded guilty to an assault outside Carron Works Wetherspoons, Bank Street,

Falkirk on January 23 last year – pushing a man to the body, causing him to fall and strike his head on the ground to his injury.

At an earlier appearance it was stated McLay had exchanged words with the complainer and then pushed him to the body, causing him to fall back so his head hit the concrete, causing it to bleed.

At the time it was stated there was some level of provocation involved in that the man had been blowing kisses towards McLay.

McLay had pleaded guilty to other assaults committed outside the Royal Mail, 1 Garrison Place and Grahamston Railway Station and in Vicar Street, Falkirk on February 26, 2022.

Earlier this year Sheriff Christopher Shead placed McLay on a supervised community payback order for 12 months with the condition he complete 160 hours of unpaid work in that time.

However, last months Thursday’s court Sheriff Simon Collins learned McLay was absent from court because he was “currently on holiday in Turkey with his family”.

Sheriff Collins said: “I appreciate we all need holidays, but it doesn’t really appear he is taking it as seriously as he should be.”

He continued the case to last Thursday so McLay could return from his holidays to “explain himself”.

The court heard McLay’s community payback order review was a “mixed bag” with some of his absences down to illness and one down to simply “forgetting one of his appointments”.

It was stated McLay had completed 63 of his 160 hours of unpaid work.

Sheriff Craig Harris said: “The report is described as a ‘mixed bag’ – that would be an optimistic way of describing it. Your attendance is noted as being sporadic –well sporadic doesn’t cut it.”

Sheriff Harris called for another community payback order review on McLay, 8 Comely Park Gardens, Falkirk, for July 27.