Lurgan: sex offender who failed to notify change of address to PSNI had been reported as 'suspicious male'
A sex offender accused of failing to notify police of a change in his address and of stealing an electronic bail monitoring tag had been reported as a ‘suspicious male’ in Lurgan, a court has heard.
Simon Anthony McDonagh (41), of Larch Grove, Newtownabbey, appeared at Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, via video link from prison.
He faced a charge of failing to notify police within a relevant period of a change of address in January this year.
On another charge sheet he had an address listed as Millstone in Portstewart. He admitted the theft of an electronic bail monitoring tag in February this year.
A prosecutor told the court that on January 13 this year, police were notified by the bail monitoring firm that the defendant was not residing at his approved address.
He is a Category Two registered sex offender having been convicted at Lisburn court in 2019 for the offence of exposure. He had failed to notify police of a change of his address.
The court heard McDonagh was arrested at an address in Enniskillen on January 23.
He had been fitted with a bail monitoring tag following a domestic matter and the defendant then told police he was at Antrim Hospital Emergency Department.
There had been other tag breaches, including in Lurgan after being reported as a "suspicious male". When arrested he had no tag on.
A defence barrister said the defendant had been staying at an address in Glengormley in January this year and had an "argument" with the owner and accepts he hadn't stayed there for a number of nights.
The lawyer said the defendant had been "heavily under the influence" when the tag was removed.
The defendant, who had 201 previous convictions and was in breach of suspended sentences, was jailed for seven months.