Man, 50, jailed for defecating in public

Damien Joseph Young (50), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to indecent behaviour and criminal damage, as well as stealing a pair of trousers worth £4 from a charity shop on June 17.

The court heard he was caught on CCTV defecating in the stairwell of the Quayside Shopping Centre.

The centre manager told police there had human excrement on the floor of level one, but it had been cleaned prior to police arriving.

Young was identified on the CCTV and police saw him a short time later outside a Barnardo’s charity shop, where staff reported that a pair of cream trousers worth £4 had been stolen. Young was seen to be wearing them.

It was revealed the defendant, who has 298 previous convictions, was in breach of a suspended sentence.

Defence counsel Eoghan Devlin told the court his client has a long-standing alcohol problem and the cycle of his life involved Young going in and out of prison.

Mr Devlin said his client had become “totally institutionalised”.

The barrister told the court Young was once a talented sportsman but his dependency on alcohol took over.

Jailing Young for six months, Deputy District Judge Ted Magill said: “Theft from a charity shop is particularly distasteful and defecating in a public place is utterly unnecessary. I have absolutely no doubt there would have been public toilets in the shopping centre.”