District Judge Peter King has told a defendant that if his charge of disorderly behaviour at a local Hospital had occurred during COVID, he would have jailed him.
At Coleraine Magistrates’ sitting in Ballymena on November 6, the Court heard that on November 5, 2019, the defendant was arrested on another unrelated matter but was later taken to Causeway Hospital where he became disorderly.
Alister Henry (57) with an address listed as Kylemore Road Coleraine, appeared in court on one charge of disorderly behaviour which was read to him and the facts of the case presented to the court.
The defendant who pleaded guilty to the above charge had however the unrelated charge from earlier on that day of the incident, withdrawn.
The Court heard that defendant had previously received 2 months prison suspended for one year for disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest back in May 2019.
In sentencing the defendant, Judge King said that had this happened during the “course of the pandemic” then he would have not hesitated in sending him to prison.
The defendant was ordered to restart his previous suspended sentence that was breached commencing from November 6 for a further two years. Additionally, he received 4 months in jail, suspended for two years for the current charge.
