Lurgan man who walked into the town's police station appearing to video, thought people were after him, Craigavon court hears
A Co Armagh man, who walked into Lurgan Police Station and appeared to be videoing, thought there was a fight and people were after him, Craigavon Magistrates Court has heard.
Conor Haddock, aged 21, from Maple Court, Lurgan, was before the court facing a charge of assaulting police.
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The court heard that on February 8, 2023 at around 11.20pm, an unknown male entered Lurgan Police Station.
"The male in question was holding up a mobile phone as if he was videoing,” revealed a prosecutor. "He was approached by one of the officers and asked what he was doing.
"He then became aggressive and stating police were f**king ...”
District Judge Michael Ranaghan interrupted the prosecutor saying he had read that the police officer said ‘Mr Haddock has attempted to bite me on my right leg. He has also spat in my direction which necessitated the application of a spit hood’.
"That is coupled with verbal abuse etc..” said the district judge.
Mr Logue revealed Haddock was in the police station “trying to get help from police”.
"He was so out of it he thought there was a fight. He thought there were people after him. As it turns out, none of that was true. He is basically in the police station trying to get help.
"They know he is talking nonsense. But because they are not taking him seriously in the state that he’s in, he gets annoyed and that’s why this happens," said Mr Logue who added the incident happened more than two years ago and there’s been nothing since.
District Judge Ranaghan said: “It is important that the court is, at least, consistent when it comes to attempting to bite police and spitting at police. I am not going to be consistent if I don’t treat it seriously."
He said he would order a pre-sentence report. “I am simply not happy with that type of behaviour. I think the court has a duty to defend people who put themselves in the way of violence like we don’t have to do.”
"Ordinarily detention might not be a live issue but you attempted to bite a police officer and spat at an officer – that makes it a very live issue,” he said.
The case was adjourned until July 23.