Man assaulted two ambulance workers

Ryan Donnelly (21), of Tafelta Rise, Moneymore Road, Magherafelt, was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community service and was placed on probation for one year for assaulting the ambulance personnel on February 26.

Prosecuting counsel said Northern Ireland Ambulance where called to the property where they found the defendant lying on the kitchen floor.

He said while one ambulance worker was completing paper work, the defendant got up and punched him to the left side of the head. The other ambulance worker came to his colleague’s assistance, said the lawyer, and in a struggle he was kicked in the groin. The lawyer added that NI Ambulance called the police for assistance.

Defence lawyer Noel Dillon said Donnelly fully accepted his actions and wished to apologise to the court for his behaviour.

“His actions were deplorable,” said Mr Dillon who pointed out the incident had happened in the defendant’s uncle’s home.

He said Donnelly had been “hanging around with the wrong peer group” and was using cannabis, and was “quite a handful to his family at the time”.

District Judge Michael Ranaghan told Donnelly “the door for prison was wide open” as he had attacked two people who had come to his aid.

He took into account Donnelly did not have a criminal record, his age, and that his family were providing support.

Mr Ranaghan warned if he breached the order he would be brought back and sentenced to prison for four months.

Editor’s message:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a copy of the paper. You can also support trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription of the News Letter.