Jail sentence for Larne man who struck victim on head with a baseball bat
A Larne man accused a man of petrol bombing his house and struck him on the head with a baseball bat, a court heard.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said Aaron Burke "could have killed" the man and said it had the "hallmarks of murder".
Burke (26) with an address listed as Sallagh Park South, was sentenced on charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and resisting a police officer on August 20 last year.
At Ballymena Magistrates Court a prosecutor said a man said he was at Burke's home in the early hours when the defendant "accused him of petrol bombing his house" which the man denied.
Burke then lifted a metal baseball bat and struck him across the face leaving him with a cut eyebrow and a lump. When police arrested the defendant he became volatile and lay on the ground.
A defence barrister said the victim had arrived at Burke's address and was "banging" on the door. The lawyer said the defendant let him in so it would not awake others in the house.
The lawyer said Burke believed the man had thrown a petrol bomb at his house in an earlier incident.
The defence lawyer claimed that when Burke accused the man, the man became "extremely aggressive" and the defendant defended himself and "in the heat of the moment" he used the baseball bat in a case in which "self defence went too far".
The judge said the victim's statement said they had been talking and after Burke accused him about the petrol bomb Burke pulled out the baseball bat and hit him on the head.
Meanwhile, on April 5 last year the defendant tried to run off from police after leaving a property and was caught with cannabis. He was sentenced on charges of obstructing police and possessing a Class B drug.
The defence barrister said the defendant was remorseful for his actions. He said the defendant had been addicted to cocaine and heroin and had been the subject of "a number of paramilitary attacks, group beatings, by different factions".
The lawyer said Burke has been to a detox unit. He said the defendant was "shaking" at the fear of going to jail.
Judge Broderick said the defendant "could have killed" the other man and said the incident had "all the hallmarks of a murder case".
He added: "To lift a metal baseball bat and hit another human being around the side of the head it is just but by the grace of God that you didn't kill this man".
Burke was sentenced to six months in prison. He was released on his own bail of £500.