BY Claire McKim
A SIX week old baby was showered with shards of glass after a thug smashed in a bus window using a metal dog chain.
The unprovoked attack by Kevin Addison, 26, meant paramedics had to use sticky tape to remove tiny pieces of glass from the newborn child’s face.
Addison, from Edinburgh, was handed an £850 fine at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to the attack.
He also brandished the chain at two police officers, the court heard.
Fiscal depute Pauline Shade said Addison “swung the chain and hit the bus window”.
She added: “The impact of the chain shattered the window. The little boy was showered with glass.” She said the baby’s mother “began screaming” after Addison wrecked the window with the 45cm long chain.
The fiscal added: “Her son had small pieces of glass on his face and paramedics used sticky tape to remove the glass.”
The bus had stopped in the city’s Maybury Drive when the attack happened in June last year.
The court heard how the victim had been travelling on the bus home from Haymarket Station with her baby on her knee and had seen Addison approach the bus from the opposite side of the road.
The fiscal said the mother’s partner initially tried to follow the attacker but stopped pursuing him after he saw Addison brandishing the chain. She added: “Her partner went off the bus to track him down. He did see him, but was concerned for this safety.”
The court heard that in a further act of violence in August of the same year, Addison had threatened police at an Edinburgh car park with the dog chain and instructed his dog to attack them.
Shade said there had been many witnesses to the attacks who had felt fearful for their safety.
Defence agent Mark Hutchison blamed the crimes on the fact his client had been on drugs at the time and was away from his family. He added, “He is now back with his family and is off the drugs.”
Addison admitted smashing a window of the bus with a metal dog chain. He also admitted brandishing the metal chain at the woman’s partner.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers, brandishing a chain at them and inciting a dog to attack the police officers.
