Man jailed for air pistol attack
Patryk Trocki will serve 16 months behind bars
A man who left his neighbour with a pellet lodged permanently in his head after attacking him with a BB gun was jailed today.
Patryk Trocki shot Grzegorz Platt repeatedly in the head with the air pistol during the attack on New Year's Day.
Mr Platt was assaulted while standing at the front door of his property in Aberdeen with his 10-year-old son, who thought his dad was going to die.
He needed to have several pieces of plastic surgically removed from his face but one of the pellets remains under his skin.
Surgeons decided that it was too risky to remove the pellet because they feared it could cause further damage.
Trocki was sentenced at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday after previously admitted assaulting his neighbour to his severe injury on the city's Printfield Walk.
Fiscal depute Stephanie Ross previously told the court that Trocki had turned up at his victim's house after the pair argued during a phone call.
When Mr Platt came to he door, he was shot six times by his neighbour who he his hood up over his head.
She said: "His 10-year-old son was hysterical and kept shouting for his dad.
"He had followed him down to the communal entrance at the time. The disturbance was heard by neighbours in the vicinity who saw the accused with a gun in his hand.
"Another lady in the block heard the 10-year-old saying 'he is trying to kill my dad'.
"First the shots hit him to the face just below his nose.
"At this point he put his hand to his face and turned to the left. The other shots hit him at the right hand side of the face, making contact with his cheek and near his mouth and ear. The impact caused him to fall to the ground."
The court heard Mr Platt was taken to hospital and had to return a week later for specialist treatment.
Numerous small incisions were made to remove pellets from his face.
Sheriff Graeme Napier deferred sentence on Trocki, 37, for background reports, during his previous court appearance.
Yesterday defence lawyer Charles Benzies said his client accepted that it must have been a "traumatic experience" for his victim and his son who witnessed the attack.
The lawyer told the court that Platt had lost his job because he had to attend various court dates and returned to Poland for a family matter.
He said his employer eventually lost patience with him.
The father-of-four has been living in Scotland for four years and had been employed as a welder.
He had bought the BB gun to go for target practice sessions in a forest.
Sheriff Graeme Napier told him: "I find it difficult to understand your behaviour.
"But then that can be said for a lot of accused who appear in front of me."
He was jailed for 16 months.