Man threatened to shoot bar staff in Newcastle incident

Man threatened to shoot bar staff in Newcastle incident

7 December 2016

TWO men have been given suspended prison sentences after causing mayhem outside a Newcastle bar. 

Eight police officers were needed to restrain Paul David Patrick Telford (35), of Crew Road, Downpatrick, and Mark Crothers (35), of Killard Road, Ballyhornan, when they shouted abuse and resisted arrest at Main Street on July 17.

The duo, described at Downpatrick courthouse on Thursday as “hard working men”, had gone out for the night to celebrate Crothers’ 35th birthday.

When an altercation broke out, Telford threatened to shoot staff, told a police officer he hoped “Isis would blow him up” and shouted racial abuse at another policeman.

The district court heard that Telford was put in a police vehicle with “considerable assistance”, while staff were needed to help restrain Crothers, who refused arrest by tucking his hands under his body.

Defence solicitor Joe Mulholland said the incident was “totally out of character for both men”, who had shown remorse for their behaviour.

“Nothing of this nature has ever happened before,” he said. “These are hard working men who contribute to society and to their families. Something stupid must have happened outside the bar, something has provoked them to act in this way and no CCTV was working.

“They drank far too much, they were a bad combination together and they offer full apologies to police officers and other people who were walking around in the vicinity.

“I would ask your worship to taper your thoughts of custody with mercy. These men fell on their sword, it is one night out of 35 years.”

However, District Judge Greg McCourt said the behaviour “crosses the custody threshold.”

He said Telford was in a worse position than his co-defendant because of a previous conviction and because of the hostility shown towards one police officer because of his ethnicity.

He was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for two years with a £350 fine, while Crothers, who has no previous convictions, as sentenced to three months in prison suspended for 18 months with a fine of £300.