A man appeared in court today (Tuesday) accused of racially abusing and assaulting a police custody officer.
Appearing at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court via videolink from police custody, 30-year-old Nicholas Parkes was charged with two counts of assaulting a “designated person” and causing criminal damage to a police cell on Monday, July 13.
The court heard that when Parkes was arrested for breaching bail conditions, “he was very aggressive to police” but when officers took him to the custody suite, he was “racially abusive to a custody detention officer and aggressive to another.”
Once inside the cell Parkes, from St. Mary’s Street in Newry, spat on it so it needed to be cleaned.
Defence solicitor Eoghan McKenna conceded that Parkes “has a habit of making a bad situation worse.”
District Judge Amanda Brady releases Parkes on his own bail of £100 with conditions that he is to live in police approved accommodation, observe a curfew and not to be under the influence of alcohol in public.
His case is due back before the court tomorrow (Wednesday).
