TWO men have pleaded guilty to attacking a man with a bicycle chain at a flat in Dumbarton while they demanded money from his friend.

Russell Mackinnon pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and attempted robbery on Friday - but only after a jury had been sworn in to hear his trial.

Mackinnon, 35, who was listed in court papers as an inmate at Inverness prison, admitted assaulting a man at Valeview Terrace, Dumbarton, on July 31, 2020.

He forced entry to the property, demanded money, uttered threats of violence, repeatedly struck his victim on the head and body with a bicycle chain, to the man’s injury, and attempted to rob him of a quantity of money.

A second accused, Christopher Coleman, 32, an inmate at Low Moss prison in Bishopbriggs, had pleaded guilty on a previous occasion to the same charge, as well as to possession of a knife.

Both men were on bail at the time, Coleman having been granted bail just a few days before the incident.

Fiscal depute Meghan Glancey told the court that the victim of the assault was alone at home at around 10pm on July 31, last year awaiting a food delivery.

At one point he looked out the window and saw two men loitering outside.

He thought nothing of it.

Two delivery drivers arrived and also saw the two men.

One of them went to the victim’s property and after leaving, as the victim went to close the door, Mackinnon and Coleman pushed past him and entered the property.

Mackinnon was holding a bicycle chain. Both began to shout: “Where’s the money?”

The victim stated he didn’t have any money and didn’t know what this was about.

The victim’s friend owed money to one of the men, but the victim said he knew nothing.

He called his friend, and while he was on the phone, Mackinnon was threatening him with the bicycle chain.

Coleman, the court heard, took the chain and struck the householder to the arm and head.

Mackinnon took the phone and continued to utter threats to the victim.

The friend on the call could hear Mackinnon shouting, “Chris, just do him”.

The victim’s friend made his way to the Valeview Terrace address while calling police, who told him not to enter the property.

Mackinnon was seen driving away from the scene, but police found Coleman still at the property.

The victim had a large injury to the back of his head, which was glued shut by paramedics.

He did not require hospital treatment.

Mackinnon was later traced on the Isle of Skye.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry said Mackinnon’s criminal history stretched back some 19 years, and included a previous conviction for assault to severe injury while he was on bail.

Sheriff Hendry called for a background report from a social worker to determine whether there is scope to give Mackinnon an extended sentence or make him subject to supervision when he is released from prison.

But he told Mackinnon: “There’s only one conceivable option - you will be sent to prison for this offence.”

Sentence on both men was deferred until Tuesday, March 30.

Until Mackinnon’s guilty plea, the 15 jurors had been set to be only the second jury to sit for a case at Dumbarton Sheriff Court in more than a year, watching proceedings via a video link from the Odeon cinema complex at Braehead.