A Markethill man who assaulted two female neighbours before phoning police to tell them he was going to petrol bomb their home, has been jailed.
Sean Anthony Taylor, 35, of Bunker Hill, appeared at Armagh Magistrates’ Court – sitting in Newry – on Tuesday charged with two counts of common assault, possession of an offensive weapon and threats to damage property.
The court heard that at 5.35pm on June 10, police received a call in relation to an assault on two females in the vicinity of Newry Street, Markethill.
The injured parties told police that they were smoking at the communal door of their address, which is approximately 100 yards from Taylor’s address, when he approached them and accused them of breaking into his property and stealing money.
Taylor then lashed out and punched one of the females, with a clenched fist on the throat, before pushing the other female in the chest.
During the incident they managed to close the door to prevent Taylor from getting in. It was alleged that he further tried to push on the door before walking away.
On Sunday, June 3 – just a week before – at approximately 1.05am, police received a call from Taylor stating he was going to petrol bomb his neighbours’ house.
Taylor appeared to be intoxicated on the call and was slurring his speech and was slow to answer any questions from the call handler.
Police attended his Bunker Hill address where he reported having issues with his neighbours.
He stated that his neighbours were “going to get what’s coming to them”.
Police spent about 10 minutes trying to calm Taylor down and get him to go to bed, however, his behaviour kept escalating.
He stated that his neighbours were going to get petrol bombed. He then exited the property with a Buckfast bottle in his left hand.
A police officer drew his baton and shouted for him to stay back. He was holding the bottle by the neck and stated, “I’ll f*****g smash this over your head”. It was at this point he was arrested.
Taylor’s defence solicitor said the grievance arose with his neighbours “whenever he was released from another sojourn in custody”.
“He was informed by third parties that these individuals had been responsible for ransacking his property, which was in a fairly bad state when he got out of custody, so he went to confront them.
“I think he acknowledges now that that wasn’t the appropriate way to deal with it.”
Scanning Taylor’s record, District Judge Laura Marshall commented on the “multitude of suspended sentences” and that she didn’t “even know where to start, there’s so many of them”.
“His record is absolutely appalling, I mean, 208 convictions – it’s 24 pages,” she added.
Referencing the call made to police, Judge Marshall said the threat charge was “was brought about by his own stupidity, he phoned the police and said he was going to petrol bomb his neighbours, but then the way he gets on when police get there, and threatened the police with the bottle, is serious”.
Taylor was sentenced to four months in prison for the offences he appeared in court for and had another two suspended sentences activated which totalled 10 months in custody.
