A WALLYFORD man pulled an elderly man to the ground in an unprovoked attack after spending the day inhaling butane gas.

James Thomson spent the morning ingesting a quantity of the gas before sitting down at an outside table at a restaurant in Joppa.

Thomson was asked to move on by a member of staff as he wasn’t a customer before he then spotted a 71-year-old man walking towards him.

Thomson, of Wemyss Gardens, approached the man and grabbed him by his clothing, causing him to fall by pulling him to the ground.

The victim was injured in the attack outside the Joppa Rocks restaurant, Joppa Road, in the afternoon of July 3.

The police were called and 56-year-old Thomson was quickly arrested and charged with assault.

He pleaded guilty when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on August 14 and was remanded in custody.

He was back in the dock on Tuesday, where Sheriff Derek O’Carroll sentenced him to a seven-month period of custody.

The sheriff also imposed a three-month supervision release order on Thomson for the authorities to monitor his behaviour on his release.