Police received report of cider drinker 'threatening' children at a play park in Ballymena
Police responded to a report a man was 'threatening' children at a Ballymena play park and when they arrived he had a bottle of cider.
The 33-year-old was disorderly in the Brooke Park area of Harryville on May 10.
A prosecutor told Ballymena Magistrates Court the children in the park were teenagers.
When police arrived the defendant, William Dennis Dunlop, of no fixed address, had a bottle of cider and "appeared under the influence".
The prosecutor said children and parents said the defendant had been sitting at Harryville Community Centre and began “swearing towards the children".
She added some of the children had become "quite upset" and didn't' want to walk past him in case he "became violent".
A defence solicitor said the defendant would not have behaved in such a way had he not been intoxicated.
The solicitor said Dunlop is "presently homeless" and had been "living in between friends' houses at the time drinking to excess".
He was given a two-month prison term.