THREE thugs have admitted assaulting and robbing a friend at his own property in Ayr, leaving him permanently disfigured.

Alexander Clark and Bridget Rose Taylor, of Park Terrace, Maybole and Stuart Ventura of Kyle Street, Ayr pleaded guilty to entering their victims flat with a key, demanding money and strike him on the head and body with a bottle.

They also owned up to robbing him of £55, a container containing £34.93 and a mobile phone while conspiring to steal a quantity of drugs on October 8, 2014.

Another man was involved in the robbery whose identity remains unknown. The trio appeared before Sheriff John Montgomery at Ayr Sheriff Court last Tuesday, April 3.

The court heard Taylor had been at the complainers flat. The only way to gain entry is to use a designated key fob or to be granted entry from one of the residents in the flat.

On the night the incident took place Taylor was at the complainers flat but was sending text messages. 

At around 10pm she made an excuse to leave and said she was going to the shop and requested the key for the flat so she would not have any problems getting back into the flat.

She returned about 10 minutes later using the key with two other men. One was Stuart Ventura and the other was Clark.

Ventura said to his victim I want you f***ing money now but the complainer produced a samurai sword as a defence but Ventura struck him to the head with a Buckfast bottle. 

Taylor ran from the flat but Ventura continued to demand money and began to rummage through the residents pockets before leaving. 

At 10.30pm police arrived and the complainer told him two masked men had entered his flat and smashed over the head with a bottle. Police could see evidence of this. 

When she was questioned by police Taylor said she had bumped into two men at the shop who followed her back to the flat.

But CCTV footage shows Taylor meeting them on Ayr High Street a short distance away. 

She told police that she never robbed anyone but had planned with Ventura and another man to steal a quantity of drugs as a form of payback. She did not know the other male.

Taylor said that they were not supposed to become violent but it only got violent when the complainer produced a sword. She ran from the flat because things all went wrong. 

Speaking on behalf of Taylor, defence solicitor Robert Logan said: "Her relationship with Mr Clark is over. This young woman was trying to relieve the complainer of some drugs."

Sheriff Montgomery said: "That is a very euphemistic way of putting it."

Speaking on behalf of Ventura defence solicitor McGuire said: "He had pled guilty to a serious matter. It is his position that he been in contact with Miss Taylor.

"He accepts his position that he struck the complainer on the head by the bottle he had been drinking from and accepts how stupid his part was."

Sheriff Montgomery sentenced Clark to 120 hours unpaid work in six months. Taylor will complete 200 hours unpaid work in six months. But Ventura has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.