Portadown woman, accused of running through cordon outside Lurgan Police Station, was wearing men's underwear on her head rather than a balaclava, Craigavon court hears
A Portadown woman, accused of running through a police cordon while officers were dealing with a terror attack, was thought to be wearing a balaclava but it was ‘men’s underwear on her head’, a court hears
Elisha Donnelly, aged 26, from Abercorn Park, appeared in the dock at Craigavon Magistrates Court on Wednesday (April 1).
-
-
She faces three charges in relation to the incident on March 31 this year including breaching a cordon set up after a terror attack at Lurgan Police Station, disorderly behaviour and obstructing police.
She also faces a number of theft charges, including stealing clothing from Tesco valued at £77.50 and stealing groceries and confection, value unknown, from Spar on March 8 this year.
The defendant is also charged with stealing two bottles of cider, with a total value of £3.94, from Lidl on February 23 and stealing alcohol valued at £8.99 from the Spar at William St, Lurgan on March 22.
Donnelly is also accused of stealing alcohol valued at £33.14 from Winemark on March 29 and an iPhone 17+, valued at £1,299, from a man on February 2 this year.
The officer said that on March 31 this year at 8am police were on duty at a designated cordon area in Lurgan when they saw the defendant “running through the police cordon wearing what appeared to be a balaclava”.
When the defendant was stopped she was found to be wearing black men’s underwear covering her face and a baseball cap pulled down.
She initially gave police "false details”. After she was arrested police discovered she was wanted in relation to a number of theft charges.
The officer said that when asked about breaching the police cordon Donnelly said: “I wasn’t told. It was clear. I just ran past.”
He said police objected to bail on the grounds she may commit further offences. He added that while the defendant has no convictions for theft she has seven charges pending from February 2026.
"She appears to have an issue with drugs and alcohol and would appear to be seeking alcohol on a regular basis,” he said, adding there is a fear she won’t surrender to police and has three previous breaches of court bail.
Donnelly’s barrister Mr Damien Halleron said his client is still a young woman who has an “underlying substance problem primarily with alcohol”.
He explained Donnelly lost her permanent residence around October last year. “All her detections have come from that period of time and since.”
The barrister said he was seeking bail and his client had found a bail address with a man in Portadown.
"Her behaviour outside the police station is something you can infer from her underlying alcohol difficulty,” he said.
"Certainly she is more of a nuisance at that stage,” said the barrister, adding Donnelly denies stealing the iPhone.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said: “Until relatively recently you had no criminal record at all. Now you've built one up and this is an alleged spree of thefts an there's that cordon issue.”
“On top of that is your attitude to court bail, attitude to police,” said the District Judge refusing bail due to a possibility of breaching bail conditions.
The case was adjourned until April 24.