A world champion fighter who battered a thief with a hammer has been spared jail.
Chris Shaw attacked George Halliday when he tried to break into his home, leaving him soaked in blood with a broken nose.
The 31-year-old armed himself with tools and chased the would-be house breaker down the street wearing only boxer shorts and flip-flops, the Daily Record reports.
The IMF Mauy Thai world champ was told yesterday that his otherwise good character helped him avoid a prison sentence when he appeared for sentencing at Paisley Sheriff Court.
Shaw, who admitted his guilty at an earlier hearing, was asleep in his bed at his home in Johnstone when 44-year-old Halliday tried to break in.
Defence lawyer Tom Waters told the court that the martial artist, who has also had numerous MMA bouts, runs his own business and was eager to stay out of prison.
He explained: "He is self-employed, works seven days a week, and is the first to get his hands on the tools."
Sentencing Shaw, Sheriff Tom McCartney told him: "If you were a person with previous convictions there's no doubt a prison sentence would be the most likely sentence in respect of an assault of this nature.
"In the absence of any previous convictions I am just persuaded that I can deal with this matter by way of an alternative to prison."
He placed Shaw on a Community Payback Order, telling him to carry out 200 hours' unpaid work in the next 12 months, reduced from 250 hours as he admitted his guilt.
And he warned Shaw that he could still be jailed over the offence, if he fails to comply properly with the punishment.
The court heard previously that Shaw chased Halliday who had broken into this tool van and was trying to gain access to his home.
He struck Halliday, causing him to fall to the ground, then hit him with the hammer, with the blow landing on Halliday's arm.
He then rained kicks and punches on his head and body for around two minutes, leaving Halliday covered in blood and with an eye so swollen he couldn't open it.
The police were contacted and officers found Shaw with dried blood on both sets of knuckles.
While being treated at hospital, Halliday said: "I thought I was breaking into a garage but it turns out it was a house and the guy battered me".
Halliday appeared in court the day after the attack and admitted breaking into Shaw's van and stealing items, and trying to break into his home.
Halliday was stabbed more than 20 times in 2010, later becoming a heroin addict, and was diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2017.
In 2011 he stole a Subaru Forester 4x4, used to ferry ill children to Glasgow's Yorkhill Hospital, after breaking into a specialist paediatric nurse's home.
