A BACKPACKER who was hiking in Scotland told a court yesterday how he was repeatedly attacked by teenagers wielding an axe.
Thomas Tobor, a German student, was trying to pitch his tent on wasteground in Greenock, when he and his friend were allegedly assaulted by the gang.
The 23-year-old told Paisley Sheriff Court he was kicked on the ground and struck with the we
apon, which he had used earlier to prepare the campsite.
He described rolling around on the grass trying to avoid the blade but sustained four or five blows, including to his neck, right arm, and leg. His friend, Jens Kuchenmeister, described seeing "blood everywhere".
The alleged attack took place last summer as the two Germans were walking up the west coast, intending to complete the West Highland Way. They arrived in Greenock at around 6 or 7pm on 24 August
and found an area of waste ground where they intended to set up camp.
But before they could pitch their tent, they said a group of aggressive teenage girls approached them.
They allegedly looked through the tourists' possessions, before one girl threw one of Mr Kuchenmeister's sandals in a nearby stream, making off with the other shoe. Mr Kuchenmeister, a student at Karlsruhe University, said he was then punched on the head five or six times by a man, before he was put in a headlock and bitten on the right ear.
Under questioning by procurator fiscal depute Frank Clark, Mr Tobor described how he was "very confused and in shock".
The court heard how Mr Tobor attempted to take out his mobile phone to contact the police, but three men approached him. He was punched on the nose before he could make the call.
"One girl shouted to the boys that, 'He has an axe'. She must have seen it before," he added. "After I heard the girl shout, one of the guys had the axe in his hand.
"He pulled his arm up and with great power hit me with the axe. I got hit four times on my body, but they tried maybe ten, 12 times. I was rolling around on the grass so not every hit me. One was very close, it was towards my neck. At the very last second I turned so I just had a scratch."
Joseph McCairn, 19, Andrew Barron, 18, and Lee McClure, 17, are accused of attacking Mr Tobor with an axe, knocking him to the ground, before kicking him repeatedly on the body to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
They are also accused of acting in a racially aggravated manner by shouting, swearing, and uttering threats and racial abuse at them.
A fourth accused, 17-year-old Sophia Collins, is charged with conducting herself in a disorderly manner, shouting, swearing, throwing Mr Kuchenmeister's shoes into a stream, and breach of the peace.
Barron and McClure, from Greenock's Lansbury Street, and Collins, from the town's Broadstone Avenue, all deny the charges before them.
The trial before Sheriff Neil Douglas continues.
The full article contains 519 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
