Football thug who attacked Raith Rovers’ fan in ‘horrible case’ is back in court

Mackenzie King was part of a gang of Dunfermline fans who attacked the 18-year-old supporter.

King, 21, avoided a jail sentence initially but ended up in prison when he failed to do his unpaid work.

The schoolboy victim was punched and kicked by the gang, breaking both his hearing aids. The shocking incident took place following a Fife derby match at Dunfermline’s East End Park. The youth was knocked to the ground by a group then repeatedly punched and kicked in an incident captured on a mobile phone and posted online.

King returned to Dunfermline Sheriff Court having been remanded in custody on April 25 for breaching his community payback order.

Defence solicitor Elaine Buist told court King was now saying he was having nightmares about the attack. She said, “He wakes up at night with the horrors.”

However, an unimpressed Sheriff Susan Duff recalled the impact statement from the victim in which he spoke of his own nightmares and being left traumatised by the attack.

She said, “This is a particularly horrible case and I’m seeing horrible cases every day.”

Ms Buist said: “He says he knows he was given a chance and has thrown it back in the court’s face. He says he’s grown up and can’t believe how immature he was.”

Sheriff Duff noted from the social work report about King’s time in jail, “He’s not enjoyed the experience.”

The sheriff allowed the community payback order to continue and added another 20 hours of unpaid work which means he will have 252 hours to do. He had been sentenced originally to 240 hours of unpaid work but only did eight of them.

King, of Broomhead Drive, Dunfermline and a co-accused admitted that at a bus stop in Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, they assaulted a youth whilst acting with others on January 2 last year.

They repeatedly punched and kicked him on the head and body, seized him and threw him to the ground, repeatedly punched and kicked him on the head and body when he was on the ground, then seized and kicked him as he was attempting to leave, all to his injury.

Both were made subject to football banning orders for three years.