A MAN who attacked a paramedic sent to help him after he suffered a seizure at a Dumbarton railway station has been spared a prison sentence – after a court heard he couldn’t remember the incident.

Anthony Sweeney punched the emergency worker in the face and bit him on the leg in the vicious assault at Dalreoch station on October 18.

Sweeney, 39, of Cardross Road, was sentenced at the town’s sheriff court on Friday, when prosecutor Craig Wainwright said: “Paramedics were asked to attend Dalreoch railway station to a report of a male having a seizure.

“They observed the accused crawling up a grass embankment. They conveyed him into the ambulance to carry out an assessment.

“Without warning he punched a paramedic to the left hand side of his mouth. The paramedics attempted to restrain him and the accused bit the same witness to his left bicep.

The injured paramedic sustained a cut to the inside of his lip and a puncture wound where Sweeney had bitten him.

Sweeney originally faced a further accusation of possessing a quantity of cannabis at the time of the incident, though his plea of not guilty to that charge was accepted by prosecutors.

Sweeney’s solicitor, Phil Lafferty, told the court: “The circumstances surrounding this remain something of a mystery to him.

“He is frankly appalled at this behaviour. It’s perhaps a measure of his condition at the time that when he first appeared [in court] on October 19 I couldn’t obtain proper instructions from him.

“I was able to discuss the matter more effectively the following day but he still wasn’t in a position to offer a cogent explanation for what happened.”

Sweeney was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work within nine months and was placed under social work supervision until July 2019. He was also ordered to pay his victim £300 compensation.