A Portuguese national was yesterday given a conditional discharge after he admitted headbutting a security guard.

Marco Carvalho, 28, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to one count of assault, saying through a translator that the guard had insulted his girlfriend.

The court heard that shortly after midnight on August 14, security guard Tio Burgess was working at Henry VIII Restaurant when he noticed Carvalho being loud and obnoxious.

Mr Burgess escorted the Cedar Hill, Warwick resident out of the bar, but the defendant headbutted and shoved him with police looking on.

Officers arrested Carvalho, who continued to shout as he was being driven away.

He apologised to police that afternoon, saying he could not recall what he said or did the previous night.

Duty counsel Saul Dismont told the court that Carvalho was drunk at the time and believed the complainant had insulted his girlfriend.

Carvalho had learned his lesson and has limited his drinking since the incident, Mr Dismont said.

He suggested that the matter could be dealt with by an absolute discharge.

A conviction could affect Carvalho’s ability to remain on the Island and would therefore impact him more than it would a Bermudian, he added.

Crown counsel Tawana Tannock said that it was not in the public interest to discharge the matter because the defendant is non-Bermudian.

She also refuted Carvalho’s version of events, saying that nothing in the evidence suggested Mr Burgess had done anything but escort the defendant outside. After deliberating, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner determined that an absolute discharge would not be suitable in this situation.

He handed Carvalho a six-month conditional discharge instead.

“If he is going to live here, he needs to behave himself,” Mr Warner said. “In this incident, he has not been doing that.”