Sheriff Fergus Thomson gave Joseph Hedley a supervision order for the Cowgate attack on Iain Brown.

Tuesday's order is the sentence on a guilty plea already entered. It is not a prison term. The BBC reported Sheriff Fergus Thomson was willing to use an alternative to custody by the narrowest of margins. STV reported he was told he had avoided jail by that same margin. Those are not the same words.

The BBC reported that Joseph Hedley, 39, was given a two-year supervision order for assaulting Iain Brown, 34, after an altercation in Edinburgh's Cowgate in September 2024. The BBC reported he was also tagged and given a home curfew requiring him to stay at his address between 19:00 and 07:00 for the next 12 months. The BBC's story is dated Oct. 27, 2026, and does not print a calendar date for the hearing. STV, in a story published Oct. 27, reported he was sentenced on Tuesday and ordered to stay indoors between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., and reported the supervision order was for two years. The Courier and Edinburgh Evening News, both dated Oct. 27, reported the same Tuesday hearing, the two-year supervision order, the tag and the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for 12 months. Edinburgh Live, timestamped 11:39 a.m. on Oct. 27, reported he appeared for sentencing "yesterday (TUES)." Tuesday and yesterday are not the same day. The other three outlets, publishing on Tuesday, called the hearing Tuesday. Nineteen hundred hours and 7 p.m. are the same clock time. The BBC prints the 24-hour form. STV, The Courier and Edinburgh Evening News print 7 p.m.

The BBC reported Hedley, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, admitted the assault to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life at an earlier appearance in Edinburgh Sheriff Court. STV reported he pleaded guilty when he appeared earlier this month. Edinburgh Live and Edinburgh Evening News reported the plea was already in before Tuesday's sentence. The BBC reported an earlier hearing was told Brown was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh after losing consciousness, and that the attack was on Sept. 20, 2024. STV reported the confrontation was at the Cowgate that day, that Hedley left the 34-year-old cyclist unconscious in the road, and that Hedley handed himself in two days later after learning police were looking for the driver. Edinburgh Live reported fiscal depute Peter Finnon told the court the incident was about 6:20 p.m., that Brown lost consciousness for a short time, and that Hedley attended a police station on Sept. 22 at about 10 p.m. The BBC reported Finnon said Brown suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured skull and an acute bleed on the brain, and that medics deemed the injuries "very much to the potential of danger to Mr Brown's life." STV reported the same injury list and the same danger to life. A guilty plea is the finding those injuries were the result of the assault he admitted. The medical description is what the fiscal told the court.

The BBC reported Hedley's lawyer, Calum Turner, insisted Hedley had "not intended" to inflict serious injury and had not been behind the wheel since the incident. The BBC reported Turner claimed Brown had shouted at the vehicle and shone a bike light into the car, and that a passenger had suffered a "seizure," which Turner said provoked Hedley to get out and confront him. Edinburgh Evening News and Edinburgh Live reported the same claims, and both reported Turner described shouted abuse and passengers, plural. The BBC reported Finnon said there had been "words exchanged" between Brown and Hedley's partner, who was in the passenger seat. Edinburgh Live reported Finnon said the partner got out of the vehicle and that words were exchanged. A partner in the passenger seat and a partner who got out are not the same account. The partner is not named. What Turner told the sheriff is the defense explanation. It is not a finding that Brown started the fight, and it is not a finding that a passenger had a seizure.

The BBC reported that in sentencing, Sheriff Fergus Thomson told Hedley he had inflicted "significant injuries" on Brown, and that the sheriff was willing to impose an alternative to a custodial sentence "by the narrowest of margins." STV reported Hedley was told on Tuesday that he "avoided a jail sentence by the narrowest of margins." The Courier, Edinburgh Evening News and Edinburgh Live reported the sheriff's willingness to use a non-custodial sentence "by the narrowest of margins," which matches the BBC's wording rather than STV's "avoided a jail sentence" line. The BBC reported Faith Currie, procurator fiscal for Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders, said, "This was a violent, sustained and unprovoked assault on an innocent member of the public who suffered serious injuries," and, "The actions of Joseph Hedley were horrific and shocking and could easily have had more devastating consequences." STV and Edinburgh Live printed those two sentences and also reported she said he "has now been brought fully to account for his crimes," that prosecutors "wholly condemn road rage incidents of this nature," and that they will prosecute them where there is a sufficiency of evidence. The supervision order, the tag and the curfew are the sentence on the plea. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.