'Very close to prison door'

A MAN whose address was given as Henry Street, Ballymoney, "appreciates he has been brought very close to the prison door".

The comment was made by a solicitor for 25-year-old Ryan Alan Robert Murphy at North Antrim Magistrates Court in Coleraine last Wednesday.

Murphy admitted damaging to a door belonging to a man in Ballymoney on February 5 last year.

The defence solicitor said his client said he was sorry and he made admissions that he had consumed too much alcohol.

He said Murphy has previous convictions but that this offence was at the "lower end of the scale".

District Judge Richard Wilson noted that by committing the offence Murphy was in breach of a suspended sentence he was given at the same court in 2008 regarding criminal damage and said he was facing a prison term.

The defence lawyer said Murphy has "learned his lesson" and added: "He appreciates he has been brought very close to the prison door."

But rather than jail the defendant, Mr Wilson varied the existing suspended sentence to run from now to add on to a three months suspended term he imposed for the February 5, 2009, incident.

That means Murphy is currently sitting on a six months jail term, suspended for two years, which will be added to if he commits any similar offences.

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