Edinburgh crime: Thug attacked man with glass bottle outside Holyrood Road car park

Nathan Tarbet launched the attack on his victim outside the NCP car park on Holyrood Road

Victim suffered serious head injury

A drunk Edinburgh thug left a man with a serious head injury after striking him with a glass bottle during an argument in the city.

Nathan Tarbet launched the attack on victim Marcin Nalepa with the makeshift weapon outside a car park at Holyrood Road on September 13 last year. 

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Mr Nalepa was sitting outside the NCP car park drinking alcohol with friends when they were approached a group including Tarbet at around 7.30pm.

Fiscal depute Abbie McKearly said a row erupted between the groups and Tarbert “walked to a nearby rubbish bin and picked up a beer bottle and struck Mr Nalepa on the face”.

The fiscal said a woman spotted the unprovoked attack from her window and began filming those involved on her mobile phone before contacting the police.

Police arrived shorty after to find the victim “bleeding heavily” from a head wound and he was rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment to a four centimetre gash above his eyebrow.

The court was told officers seized the mobile phone footage and quickly identified 26-year-old Tarbert as the culprit. He was subsequently arrested two weeks later and was cautioned and charged at the Capital’s St Leonard’s police station where he made no reply.

Tarbet pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Nalepa to his severe injury when he appeared via a video link from HMP Edinburgh at the city’s sheriff court on Tueday.    

Defence agent Emma Martin said her client had been drinking alcohol that evening and his recollection of events are “hazy at best”.

Ms Martin said Tarbet’s friends initially became involved in the row with the men and when he intervened the incident “turned sour”.

She said: “He accepts this is behaviour he should not be getting involved in. He realises there is no real alternative to a custodial sentence and has pled guilty at the earliest possible stage.”

Sheriff Iain Nicol noted “the alcohol issue plays a part in his offending” and decided to defer sentence for the preparation of social work reports to next month.

Tarbet, who was remanded in custody meantime, pleaded guilty to assaulting Marcin Nalepa by striking him on the head with a glass bottle to his severe injury at Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, on September 13 last year.