Judge bans fighting Scot from England

A Scotsman has been ordered by a judge to stay out of England for the next five years after appearing in court on assault charges.

The ruling means that Alun McSkeane, aged 26, will not be able to watch Liverpool, his favourite football team.

McSkeane's counsel, Ali Rafati, asked whether the order could be applied to parts of England south of Liverpool, but Judge William Taylor, sitting at Plymouth Crown Court, turned down the request.

Judge Taylor told McSkeane, from Motherwell near Glasgow, that he was bound over "on the condition that he does not enter England for the next five years".

Robert Linford, for the prosecution, told the court that McSkeane, who was living temporarily in Plymouth, had been thrown out of the Newmarket pub in the town with another man and a 15-year-old youth on 15 January.

The three had set upon Stephen Sandison and Jason Lewis, two men passing the pub at the time. Mr Linford told the court that McSkeane was clearly very drunk.

McSkeane, who had earlier pleaded guilty before the city's magistrates to common assault and threatening unlawful violence, appeared at the crown court for sentencing.

Mr Rafati said McSkeane and his fellow countrymen "come down from time to time to the South-west and cause trouble". He added: "He does not want to be one of them."