Brian Ramsay had been placed on the restriction of liberty order, and ordered to stay home between 9pm and 6am - but was instead roaming the streets
The thug who left a brave teenager for dead with 13 skull fractures after a late-night attack was on a court-ordered curfew at the time.
Violent Brian Ramsay, who had been fitted with an electronic tag, should have been indoors when he battered Angus Gallagher.
The 25-year-old had been placed on the restriction of liberty order, and ordered to stay home between 9pm and 6am.
He was due to have the tag removed on October 26 – the same day he attacked Angus in the early hours of the morning.
It is not known if Ramsay cut off his tag in order to wander the streets at will during his curfew or if he simply breached it with the tag on.
But police sources say when he was arrested there was no sign of the tag – and no information to indicate he should have had one.
An MSP last night demanded answers on how tagged criminals are monitored by security firms and police, saying Ramsay should not have been allowed to roam free.
Security firm G4S are supposed to alert police if any tagged offenders appear to breach a curfew or remove their tag, reports the Daily Record.
Police are then supposed to take action against the crook. It is not known if G4S or the police knew Ramsay was roaming the streets in breach of the order.
Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: “Criminals and thugs like Brian Ramsay are quite simply laughing at our soft-touch criminal justice system.
“How on earth can anyone have confidence in law and order if this is allowed to happen?
“Electronic tagging has its place but there have always been suspicions that it was delivered purely to help empty overcrowded pisons.
“Given that he had previously removed his tag, prison is exactly where Brian Ramsay should have been.”
He added: “It only adds insult to injury to know that his sentence was a mere 18 months.
“Our justice system let Brian Ramsay out on to the streets, it failed to punish him for removing his tag and then when he committed this barbaric attack, it jailed him for less than two years.
"It is shameful.”
Ramsay launched the savage attack on Angus after the teenager spotted him lying on his back in a garage forecourt in Gorebridge, Midlothian, in the early hours of the morning.
Kind-hearted Angus helped him across the road but serial offender Ramsay turned on the teenager.
He subjected Angus to a brutal and sustained assault in the street before dragging him to a nearby house where he attacked him again.
Shocked neighbours called in the police who found the unconscious teenager lying in the street.
Angus, from Newtongrange, Midlothian, said: “He just turned on me. My mind went a bit blank and all I thought was ‘I should protect myself as much as I can’.
“He must have realised what he had done because he dragged me to his house to get me cleaned up.
“Then he hit me again in the garden and I have no recollection after that.”
Following the attack on October 26, Angus was rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmarywith 13 cranial fractures, three broken fingers, fractured ribs and a damaged ear drum.
A source said: “Ramsay had already broken an earlier tag by cutting it off.
“He was tagged again after pleading guilty to theft and housebreaking but it appears he cut that one off too and went on a drink bender before he attacked Angus.
“He should have been wearing his tag the night he battered that young boy.
“The sentence he received was ridiculously short considering his long record of violence and thuggery.”
Ramsay was sentenced to just 18 months’ jail last week for the brutal attack, sparking a furious public backlash.
A petition has been launched calling on the Scottish Government to intervene in the case.
It asks that the Government step in to ask the Crown Office to reconsider the charge against Ramsay and upgrade it to attempted murder.
One of the organisers, who did not want to be named, said: “Brian Ramsay should have been charged with attempted murder and not assault. 18 months is not long enough.”
Angus’s parents Amanda and Henry branded the sentence “disgusting” and revealed they did not recognise their son when they first saw him after the attack.
Amanda said: “When we were taken to the resuscitation unit where Angus was, my husband couldn’t walk through the doors. I couldn’t recognise him.”
Angus was kept in hospital for over a week and only returned to his job restoring classic cars in January this year.
He said the attack left him scared to venture out at night and he would think twice about helping anyone in the future.
A Scottish Courts Service confirmed Ramsay was on a restriction of liberty order when he launched the savage attack on Angus.