A PENSIONER was assaulted in a Sauchie chip shop after refusing to chat with a drunken man in the queue.

Adam Stolarek punched the 70-year-old twice to the head after he made it clear he did not want to talk to him while in The Bridge.

The accused carried out the assault on June 9 of this year while in the midst of a period of “self-destruction” according to his lawyer.

Kelly Howe told Alloa Sheriff Court that her client had an analogous conviction from 2010 for which he was admonished.

She added that Stolarek delivered “two blows” to the complainer, although he sustained no injury.

The accused was “significantly intoxicated” and had recently split up from his partner and was living out of the family home at the time, having gone through a difficult period where he suffered a terrible loss.

Stolarek then began to “drank heavily" and started taking drugs, according to Ms Howe.

She said: “He [Stolarek] approached the complainer as he wanted someone to talk to.

"He recognises those advances were unwanted. He misread a signal and lashed out.”

Sheriff David Mackie sentenced Stolarek, of Branshill Park, Sauchie, to 12 months of supervision and 120 hours of unpaid work.

He will also pay the complainer £200 in compensation.