A publican is facing jail for a brutal New Year party beating that left an SNP councillor with severe facial injuries.
Peter Hilley battered Greg Lennon after the councillor and his wife had celebrated the bells at Hilley's pub. A court heard the politician was chased, knocked to the ground then punched, kicked and stamped on.
His jaw and eye socket were shattered in the vicious attack and he underwent extensive surgery. Lennon, 44, told prosecutor Rebecca Clark his sight has been affected and, nearly three years on, he still has numbness on the side of his face.
A jury at Airdrie Sheriff Court found Hilley, 57, guilty of assaulting Lennon to his severe injury and permanent impairment. The attack happened at the Big Shop pub in Glenboig, Lanarkshire, in the early hours of New Year's Day, 2020.
Hilley, of Bellshill, was also convicted of shouting and swearing at Lennon and his wife, Tracy, and shoving the councillor's wife to the ground. Co-accused Robert McLean, 27, of Glenboig, was cleared of taking part in the assault on Greg Lennon when the jury returned a not proven verdict.
Prosecutors said a third person thought to have been involved has not been traced. The court heard the pub had put on a fireworks display to see in the New Year, but trouble flared later as revellers complained they weren't being given enough time to finish their drinks before closing time.
Lennon claimed he was trying to defuse the situation and calm down Hilley whose behaviour he described as "outrageous" and "out of order".
Hilley disputed this version of events. He said the councillor and his wife got into a row with three youths who were responsible for the attack on him. McLean claimed he left the pub before the violence flared.
HIs lawyer, Philip McWilliams, branded the councillor "an evasive, unreliable and untruthful witness". He told the jury Lennon "had reason to lie" about what happened in order to protect his position on North Lanarkshire Council.
After the verdicts, Sheriff Derek Livingston deferred sentence on Hilley until next month for a criminal justice social work report and an electronic tagging assessment. The sheriff agreed to continue bail, but warned him: "You should not take anything from the fact that bail is allowed. It might be more a case of preparing for what's coming."
Lennon, who has represented Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn on the council since 2017, was not in court for the verdicts. He declined to comment afterwards.
Earlier this year Lennon was cleared by a sheriff of acting in a threatening or abusive manner and trying to prevent a woman from voting at a general election polling station in Glasgow in 2019. He is chief executive of Brunswick Community Development Trust, a voluntary organisation working with disadvantage groups in Glasgow.
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