Threw bin through window

Aaron Black, Fairmount Park, Dungannon, appeared by way of videolink from Maghaberry prison.

For each of two common assaults and criminal damage to a T-shirt and track suit trousers he was jailed for three months while a concurrent five month term was imposed for criminal damage to a window.

Black also admitted resisting police and he was given two months in custody for this offence, to run consecutively making a total of seven months in prison.

The court heard that on October 25 at 7.20am Black threw a bin through the window of a house in Lurgan and was fighting with people who were in the premises.

Black had been drinking in the house and attacked a male before being pushed out of the door by two females.

One of them claimed he punched her.

When police arrived they went to another house and found Black hiding in the attic.

He was not fit to be interviewed until eight o’clock that evening.

A barrister representing Black said he had been drinking heavily that night. He was a man with alcohol problems.

He added that since this incident the defendant now finally acknowledged he had an alcohol problem.

On the night in question, the lawyer said, Black had over-reacted to a comment made in the house.

Deputy District Judge, Mr Neil Rafferty, said this was a ‘thuggish piece of behaviour’ and if Black did not see the error of his ways he would be facing longer and longer prison sentences.