A VIOLENT thug who left a roofer lying in a pool of blood after "brutally and relentlessly" battering him with a child's pink push-along scooter was jailed for four years last week.

Daniel Beattie left his victim lapsing in and out of consciousness with a collapsed lung following the street attack on April 8 last year.

He also dished out two broken fingers, two broken ribs, cuts to the man's head, as well as bruising all over his body by using the two-wheeled toy as a weapon.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard the 29-year-old had "an appalling record over the years" including a significant history of violent offences.

Beattie, led a gang of up to eight other, unidentified, to confront the 39-year-old complainer in Ash Grove, Alloa.

He put him in a headlock while an accomplice hit him all over his ribs and down his body with the scooter.

Beattie then raged: "You're getting it", before releasing him from the headlock and pummelling him on the head with the scooter himself – again and again, "with full force".

He was found guilty of the vicious assault last month and appeared in the dock Stirling last Thursday for sentencing.

During the trial, he maintained his not guilty plea, but declined to give evidence.

After reading a background report Sheriff Wyllie Robertson imposed the four year jail term, plus a three-year extension for post-release supervision, during which Beattie can be recalled to prison to serve a total of seven years if he re-offends.

Sheriff Robertson told him: "The jury clearly accepted the evidence in this case of a deliberate, brutal, sustained – even relentless – attack on the complainer, that resulted in his severe injury and put his life in danger, potentially.

"The report which I have in front of me identifies the need for a considerable involvement in post-release supervision.

"The only sentence I can pass here is an extended sentence, to protect the public from the risk of severe harm."

He added: "On your release you will be subject to conditions set by Scottish ministers, and if you breach those you may well be returned to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence."

Beattie showed no emotion as he was handcuffed to a security guard and led to the cells.

His solicitor, Jim Savage, said his client "accepted that a custodial sentence was what would happen".

The complainer told the court during the four-day trial that Beattie "was raining down on me with the scooter, and the others were kicking and punching me".

He added: "I was dazed... I was kind of getting knocked out with every blow. I remember being knocked out three times and coming round and he was still hitting me to my head and my side as well.

"Somebody shouted 'You're going to kill him', but still he carried on."

Police arrived, called by a neighbour, and Beattie fled.

The victim, from Alva, spent days in hospital after surgery to insert a drain and re-inflate his collapsed left lung, and had two operations on his middle finger, which he still cannot straighten properly.