A 28-year-old Craigavon man “went off on one” when his mum had gone to get him “out of bed” at 4pm.
Niall Byrne, of Clanrolla Park, had been staying at his mum’s home on Tuesday December 17 last year and when she approached him in the bedroom, a prosecutor said, the defendant “put his trousers around her neck and tugged her backwards”.
The defendant then had gone to the kitchen and had thrown a bin at a clock causing damage.
The defendant admitted charges of assaulting his mum; causing criminal damage to furniture and being in possession of three Gabapentin tablets without a prescription.
A charge of threatening to damage his mother’s property on December 17 was dismissed by District Judge Michael Ranaghan at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court.
The defendant had allegedly told his mother: “You will know all about it when your home goes up in smoke”.
The judge said the ‘threat’ had been “directly in response to the refusal of money from his mother”. The judge said it was not clear that the defendant intended that his mother would believe the ‘threat’.
A defence solicitor said the defendant had been on remand in custody since December.
Judge Ranaghan said the assault was “particularly nasty” and “no doubt the mother was in significant fear as to what was happening”.
The defendant was jailed for five months.
