A man who racially abused and assaulted a man as he prayed in Armagh missionary has been jailed.
William Andrew Hollyoak, 38, of no fixed abode, appeared before Armagh Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Newry, charged with common assault, criminal damage, possession of a Class C drug and threats to kill.
The court heard that on November 29, at 7pm, police received a report of two men fighting at an address in Armagh.
When police arrived the victim and Hollyoak had been separated by staff.
The victim reported he had been assaulted by Hollyoak, who was intoxicated, in a common room while he was trying to pray.
Hollyoak came into the room and shouted racist abuse towards the victim before grabbing the victim by his collar and slapping him to the face.
Hollyoak is then alleged to have thrown a chair, and the victim was forced to take action to stop it from hitting him to the head – causing an injury to his hand. The victim threw the chair back at Hollyoak in self defence.
The defendant then punched the victim to the arm, and both parties wrestled each other to the ground, causing damage to a table in the room.
When separated, Hollyoak made a threat to the victim, saying he would kill him, and this was in the presence of staff.
Police subsequently arrested Hollyoak, and whilst being served in custody, five pills were found on his person.
Hollyoak, during police interview, made admission to the possession of the Class C but stated that he didn’t remember the events leading up to the assault.
He said he remembered the victim came to him and assaulted him but doesn’t remember what caused it.
Defence barrister, Turlough Madden, said his client “recognises himself that his behaviour was totally deplorable at the time” and that Hollyoak “has his own difficulties and demons to deal with….he recognises that his behaviour was reprehensible in nature, totally disproportionate but he has recognised that, by way of his guilty pleas.”
Mr Madden asked for leniency to be shown to Hollyoak who entered an early guilty plea, and stressed that his primary difficulties stem from alcohol misuse.
He continued: “The week in custody has been well spent in that he has managed himself and cleaned himself out, essentially. He’s indicated that he wants to simply move on with his life, and that might be some resolution to the matter.”
District Judge Anne Marshall, addressing the defendant, said: “Mr Hollyoak, your barrister has tried very hard. Obviously, people want to get out at this time of year, but looking at your criminal record, you must have only been out from your last prison sentence whenever this happened.
“And with your last prison sentence, you were dealt with for breach of the suspended sentence, which you only got in March of this year, and you’ve already breached that and served the sentence for it.
“I have taken note of your plea in the circumstances, which is at an early stage, but you cannot behave like this. You’re due, I’m told, to go to another hostel. You know, eventually hostels will stop taking you in if you continue with this type of behaviour.
“And this is aggravated by racist abuse that was shouted, and then we also have the criminal damage to the hostel property. So what I’m going to do, in respect of the common assault, the criminal damage and the threat to kill is impose three months immediate custody, and one month for the possession of Class C with a destruction order for the drugs. So it’s a total of three months in custody.
“It would have been a lot longer. It would have been five months, if you hadn’t have pleaded at this very early stage. So you’re getting a lot of credit for that.”
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