Eight months jail term for man who used his 79-year-old dad's walking stick to assault him
A man who attacked his 79-year-old father with his dad's own walking stick has received an eight months prison sentence.
Colin Victor McDonald (59), of Clarke Court in Antrim town, was sentenced on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to May 20 last year.
A prosecutor told Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, police were tasked to an address at Meadowlands in Antrim town around 9.30am on May 20.
The defendant's dad had a "very swollen" bruised and bloodied eye. The father told police he believed the assault was over an "issue regarding the injured party's Will," a prosecutor said.
The defendant's mother told police her, now estranged, husband had been in an "angry and agitated state" in the house and she had contacted her son.
McDonald's dad said his son had assaulted him. He said he was lying on a sofa when the defendant punched him in the face before pulling him off the sofa and kicking his legs.
As he was getting up he said the defendant "lashed out" with a walking stick, hitting him on the back. The defendant's dad was in the public gallery of the court for the sentencing.
The court heard the defendant had a previous record including being jailed for 22 years in 1999. The defendant had been released in 2009 and was on release licence until 2020.
A defence barrister claimed there was a history of domestic violence and said the defendant had gone to the house in response to his mother being concerned about an ongoing incident. He added: "Background and context is everything."
District Judge Nigel Broderick said the defendant had assaulted his father before returning with his dad's walking stick and used it to hit him "multiple times" on the back.
The judge said the defendant's dad sustained a "harrowing" eye injury. Judge Broderick said the defendant's record was of significant concern.
The judge said in 1999 at Downpatrick Crown Court the defendant had been sentenced to 22 years in jail in relation to a "very serious sexual offence and a charge of child destruction and attempted murder".
That was a reference to an incident when McDonald stabbed a woman dozens of times and beat her so badly that she lost her unborn child.
Judge Broderick said in 2021 the defendant had assaulted a woman occasioning her actual bodily harm and had been given a seven months jail term which was varied to a three-year Probation Order upon appeal.
The judge told the defendant that despite claims of domestic violence against the defendant and family members over a number of years "that in no way can excuse or condone what you did - on this day".
The defendant was jailed for eight months and a two-year Restraining Order was put in place. The defendant was released pending appeal of the sentence.