Jason Lee Deignan: Carrickfergus man accused of trying to kill neighbour amid 'dog fouling' row is refused bail

Jason Lee Deignan, aged 47, was refused bail on a charge of attempting to murder the other man outside their homes in the Irish Quarter West area of Carrickfergus.

The victim was left with several broken bones and a bleed on the brain after being attacked with an unidentified weapon, according to the prosecution.

Crown lawyer Mark Conlon said emergency services had been called to the scene when the victim’s wife discovered him lying in an alleyway at around 9pm on December 3 last year.

She told police that her husband had gone to leave out a bin and let their dog urinate, but that he had phoned her minutes later and was moaning in pain.

Initially thinking it was a joke, the woman then realised something was wrong and she found her husband with bone sticking out of his leg and blood pouring out from his swollen face, the court was told.

"When she asked who carried out the attack he pointed towards his neighbour’s property and said the word ‘Lee’,” Mr Conlon disclosed.

CCTV footage from the scene allegedly showed the defendant emerge from his car and audio recordings of the suspected attack.

Prosecution counsel continued: “The applicant himself can be heard shouting towards the complainant in relation to dog fouling in a nearby garden.”

The court heard they had been involved in a year-long dispute, with issues over dog faeces allegedly left in Deignan’s yard and some being thrown against the other man’s windows.

However, the victim has only recently provided a formal statement setting out his “hazy” recollection of the incident, the court was told.

Mr Conlon added: “Police have still not located the weapon used to carry out the assault.”

Defence barrister Michael Halleron claimed the complainant remains in such a bad state that he can only remember events up to the point of the alleged attack.

Disputing the strength of any audio evidence against his client, Mr Halleron insisted that police do not know how the victim’s injuries were sustained.

"At a stage they were suggesting it might have been the car,” Mr Halleron submitted to the court.

"The car has been seized and forensics are being done to investigate that. A wheel brace has (also) been seized but the suggestion there is an outstanding weapon is new,” he said.

The defendant was seeking to be granted bail so that he could return to live in Carrickfergus. However, Mr Justice Scoffield held that the proposed address was too close to that of the injured party’s home.

Denying bail, the High Court judge ruled: “There are a number of potential witnesses who live so close by and who would be out and about in the Carrick area,

"It seems to be just too much of a risk to take to grant the applicant bail to that address.”