Joseph Kevin Magee: Lurgan man 'assaulted police officer while trying to scale courthouse fence' after being refused bail over alleged domestic violence incident

District Judge Anne Marshall heard on Monday that shortly after he was refused bail on Saturday, Joseph Kevin Magee was being escorted to a police vehicle to take him to HMP Maghaberry.

Stopping briefly in the courthouse car park to allow Magee’s lawyer to speak to him, the defendant “suddenly breaks away, trying to escape,” a police officer told the court.

Magee was climbing the fence when officers brought him to the ground but he was “struggling significantly throughout” and as he was being restrained on the ground, one of the officers felt a “stinging pain at his right wrist”.

When he looked, he noticed there were four “significant nail scratches on his wrist, three of which were bleeding,” the court heard.

Due to his aggressive behaviour Magee, from Mark Street, Lurgan, did not appear at Lisburn Magistrates Court on Monday, but a police constable said she believed she could connect him to the offence of assaulting a police officer.

On Saturday morning, the 37-year-old had been charged with four offences including inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, common assault, theft of a mobile phone and house keys and causing criminal damage to the phone and a TV, between August 14-16 this year.

The special sitting heard that having served a prison sentence for attempted choking and causing actual bodily harm to the same woman, when Magee was freed from prison he went “straight to her house”.

According to the police case, Magee “was OK for the first few days but at some stage, he became angry” and began to be abusive and violent towards the complainant.

Magee, the court heard, is alleged to have broken a TV, smashed her phone and at one point, when he was kicking and punching the woman, she raised her hands to protect herself and has sustained three broken fingers.

Arrested and interviewed, Magee “made counter allegations” and labelled the woman’s accusations as “all fabricated”.

Objecting to bail, DC O’Neill revealed that Magee is still on licence for the earlier attack on the same woman, submitting that along with his record of more than 100 previous convictions and multiple bail breaches and arrest warrants, there was a risk of further offending.

The alleged victim, he told the court, had been assessed as high-risk of domestic abuse so there was also a concern about witness interference.

Magee’s defence lawyer claimed that “it’s not just one-way traffic, it’s a relationship with a lot of animosity” so with Magee having made counter allegations, he suggested that bail could be granted subject to conditions.

Refusing bail, District Judge Eamon King told Saturday’s court: “This man is charged with domestic violence matters, there is a history of domestic violence and there is a high risk injured party who has been a victim at his hands in a previous court, where he appears to have received a pretty substantial sentence.”

Magee was remanded into custody and the case adjourned to September 19.

In court on Monday, Magee’s solicitor applied for bail which was refused.

"There is a high risk of reoffending and not keeping to conditions,” said Judge Marshall, adjourning the case to September 22.