Dungannon man charged with assault on wife

Harold Montgomery, 55, of Trewmount Road, Dungannon is charged with the offences in relation to an incident on March 2nd this year and another incident in October last year.

A court heard how the injured party in the case, Mr Montgomery’s wife hid upstairs under a bed away from her husband who had consumed a lot of alcohol on the day in question.

Mrs Montgomery told officers that she hid upstairs away from him and could hear him searching around the house looking for her.

She told officers she had to leave her hiding place a while later to use the bathroom and when Mr Montgomery saw her he said: “I’ve seen it all now you stupid f***er”.

Mr Montgomery continued to verbally abuse Mrs Montgomery on numerous occasions and she alleged to officers the assault took place when he pulled her up off the floor from where she was hiding.

The second assault reported to have occurred on the same day, was when Mrs Montgomery told police he had lashed out at her, slapping her on the head.

The third incident of assault was said to have occurred in October when Mrs Montgomery alleged that her husband had kicked her in a taxi and she sustained bruising as a result of the incident.

A court was also told that Mrs Montgomery had withdrawn her application for a non-molestation order against Mr Montgomery.

A defence solicitor acting for Mr Montgomery told the court his client is “devastated by what he has done to his wife and family” and “plans to reconcile with his wife”.

He also told the court his client accepts he has a “very bad” problem with alcohol for which he is seeking help from his GP and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

District Judge Bernie Kelly imposed a two year probation order on Mr Montgomery which was to include a course on the ‘very serious’ issue of domestic violence.