Lurgan mechanic shouted profanities outside the home of an employee he had sacked, Craigavon court hears
A Lurgan man, who shouted profanities at a former employee he had sacked, has been given a suspended jail term.
Jonathan Daniel Graham, aged 46, from Dingwell Park, Craigavon, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest.
-
-
The court heard that on December 15, 2024, the defendant went to an address in Victoria Street, Lurgan to speak to his ex-employee.
A prosecutor said the defendant shouted names at the injured party who was hiding in his property with his lights off and watching his former boss via an external camera. The defendant was kicking and banging at the front door with ‘a shiny object’ in his hand.
She explained that when the defendant was detained by officers he continued to shout accusations ‘loudly’ and was shouting profanities.
"He was warned about his behaviour, that it was a residential area at night, however he continued to shout and swear,” the prosecutor said.
"He was then arrested and said he would not be searched again and told officers to stay away. He physically resisted by physically writhing and had to be removed from the rear of the police vehicle and restrained on the floor.”
Graham’s lawyer said his client was a self employed car mechanic. He was going to his yard. The person who used to work for him and who he had sacked ‘shouted at him out the window and he then shouts back’.
The lawyer said the police were called by injured party, adding the defendant accepts he had some alcohol taken.
"Instead of being quiet and behaving himself, police arrested him for disorderly behaviour. He had been handcuffed and put in the back of the police car. They brought him out of the back of the car saying they are going to search him. He said ‘you’ve already searched me’ and that is the resisting. There’s no violence or anything of that nature,” said the lawyer.
The court was told Graham accepts there ‘was drink taken and words were exchanged between him and the other individual’ and there was was animosity between them.
"He accepts in sobriety that he shouldn’t have said what the said,” said the lawyer.
Graham was sentenced to three months in jail suspended for 18 months on each charge.