Teenager admits hitting classmate on head with mallet at Glasgow college

A teenager who left a classmate with a bruise on the brain after attacking him with a mallet has been ordered to do unpaid work.

Kian O’Neill struck the-then 16-year-old at Glasgow’s Clyde College’s Cardonald campus in October 2023 after the pair threw sawdust at each other during an altercation.

The victim, who lost consciousness and suffered seizures, was left with injuries including numbing to his body and swelling to his skull.

At Glasgow Sherif Court, O’Neill, 18, from Pollok, was given 225 hours of unpaid work after he admitted assaulting the teenager to severe injury and danger of life.

The court heard how an argument took place between the pair in the woodwork department.

It escalated as both boys threw sawdust at each other and the victim threw a wooden block which missed the older teen.

O’Neill, who was 16 at the time of the incident, was then said to have taken the mallet and struck the other boy twice on the right temple.

The victim was said to have fallen and struck his head on a work bench.

He was taken away from the classroom but lost consciousness and suffered several seizures before being taken to hospital for treatment.

The court heard he suffered a “depressed skull fracture and bruising to the brain” and reported having “no power in his upper arms” after the incident.

He remained on anti-seizure medication for about eight months.

When asked why he carried out the attack, O’Neill said: “I don’t know”.

Sentencing, Sheriff Gerard Bonnar said he considered a custodial sentence, but took into account the “spontaneity” of the attack.

“It is fair to say that an offence of this nature involving violence had serious consequences to the victim and should involve serious punishment,” he said.

“At this stage it would involve custody, however, I take account the spontaneous nature of the act in question, the fact you have no previous cases and nothing outstanding.”