Jail for crippling man with cue

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A Fife pub-goer who crippled a man for life with a single blow from a pool cue has been jailed for more than 10 years.

David Hay, 45, claimed another man was to blame for the attack but a jury found him guilty of attempted murder.

A High Court in Edinburgh heard how victim Kenneth Dick, 44, faced a "bleak future" following the events in Blazers Fun Pub, Leven, on 11 February.

Alan Laverty, 45, from Leven, was also jailed after pleading guilty to trying to defeat the ends of justice.

Barman Laverty, who was jailed for 18 weeks, did not want Blazers, in Leven's Commercial Road, to be shut down by the authorities following the attack as the pub's licence was said to be "on a shaky nail" after allegations of drug use there.

He will be in hospital for the foreseeable future Dr Lance SloanHigh Court in Edinburgh

He admitted cleaning up the bar, getting others to carry the unconscious Mr Dick outside and telling ambulance personnel that the man had fallen and hit his head on the kerb.

Laverty later regretted his error and went to court to give evidence against Hay.

Dr Lance Sloan, 51, a consultant in re-hab medicine said Mr Dick, who until the attack looked after his wife, who also has health problems, is partly paralysed and his vision has been affected.

He needs medication to try to control life-threatening fits, the court heard, and has to be fed through a tube because he is unable to swallow properly.

Cold pavement

"He will be in hospital for the foreseeable future," said Dr Sloan. "The prognosis for significant recovery is very bleak."

Sentencing Hay, of Methil, Fife, for the attack, judge Lady Clark of Calton said she took into account that it was not a prolonged attack.

Lady Clark added three months to the 10-year sentence because Hay was on bail at the time.

Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe, pleading for leniency, said medics had been unable to say how Mr Dick's condition might have been affected by being carried outside the pub and dumped on a wet, cold pavement to wait for an ambulance.

Former oil rig worker Hay, who was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in 1996, was also made subject to an order extending the time he spends on licence, after his prison term, by five years.