Officer injured in town assault

Michael Gerard McCreanor (31) of Church Place was jailed for 10 months.

A five month term was imposed for assault occasioning actual bodily harm along with three months, concurrently, for disorderly behaviour and a concurrent four month term for common assault.

A five month suspended sentence was also put into operation to run consecutively making a total of 10 months in custody.

The court heard that on August 4 last year around 1.40am in Church Place CCTV operators noted a disturbance between a male and a female.

McCreanor, who was impaired through drink or drugs, was having a verbal altercation with his girlfriend.

He was agitated and became increasingly aggressive. He struck an officer on the left side of the head and adopted a boxer’s stance before making off.

The officer received a three inch laceration to his head and there was bruising and swelling to his ear.

Police went to McCreanor’s home but he refused to open the door and shouted abuse from a window. He also assaulted another constable.

The court also heard that prior to police arriving initially on the scene McCreanor had grabbed his girlfriend by the shoulder and pulled her to the ground but she did not want to make a statement of complaint.

The case had been adjourned from a previous court so that a pre-sentence report could be obtained.

A barrister representing McCreanor said the probation report was ‘bleak and challenging’ in a number of aspects. The lawyer said McCreanor had mental health and alcohol issues and if he did not take positive steps to address those issues he was going to find himself before the courts.

He said there had been a significant reduction in the defendant’s offending since the birth of his daughter in 2010. He had been in custody since January 16 when he requested his bail to be revoked.

District Judge, Mr Mervyn Bates, added that McCreanor had been given several chances to see if he could amend his behaviour but he had recognised by revoking his bail that a custodial sentence was inevitable.