Man receives jail term after being convicted of 'smashing' ornament against side of woman's head

The 41-year-old was sentenced on charges of assault and possessing diazepam in relation to June 29 last year.

Before the court for sentencing was Lee Daniel Redmond, with an address listed as Granville Drive in Ballymena, who had been convicted of assault in his absence at an earlier hearing. He had pleaded guilty to the drugs charge.

A prosecutor told Ballymena Magistrates' Court police received a report around 9pm of an "ongoing domestic" incident at an address in Portglenone.

The prosecutor said the woman said that during an argument the defendant had called her names and had twice punched her in the face. She asked the defendant to leave the address and at a hallway he grabbed an ornament from a shelf and "smashed it against the side of her head".

The woman hid in a bathroom until police arrived.

The court was told the woman said in a victim personal statement she had gone to hospital and was "diagnosed with a moderate brain injury".

The defendant had a previous record.

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A defence barrister said the defendant denied hitting her with an ornament and claimed that after she slapped him he slapped her back in "self defence" and she had fallen.

Regarding a "brain injury" arising from the incident, the barrister said that was not clear from the medial evidence he had read.

District Judge Nigel Broderick said it was a "a very bad case of domestic violence" on a woman in her own home where she should have felt safe.

He said on the account of the woman, she was hit on the head with an ornament and punched in the face and was "diagnosed with a moderate or mild brain injury".

The judge said the woman had suffered "significant physical and emotional trauma".

He jailed the defendant for seven months and also put in place a three-year Restraining Order.

Bail in the sum of £500 was fixed for appeal.