A man who racially abused a police officer during an assault, calling him ‘”Taliban” and a “P**i b*****d” has been jailed for five months.
Malachy McCann, of no fixed abode, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates’ Court, via videolink from Maghaberry.
The 25-year-old was charged with two counts of assault on police, resisting police, and criminal damage.
The court was told the incident in question occurred on September 21 last year, when police received a 999 call from a woman. Police attended and arrested the defendant.
As he was being escorted to the police vehicle, he became “confrontational” and refused to get into the vehicle. He then began to shout abuse at the officers, referring to one constable as a “P**i b*****d” on numerous occasions.
He then placed his teeth on the constable’s right arm and attempted to bite down, but the officer withdrew his arm quickly and placed it on the defendant’s chest to restrain him. Whilst en route to custody, he kicked out at the officer a number of times.
He also called him a “terrorist”, “Taliban” and “Muslim” and said “your visa’s going to expire” several times. He became more aggressive and had to be restrained. He then began to spit inside the police vehicle.
After the facts of the case were heard, McCann’s defence lawyer told the court his client had spent three-and-a-half months in custody since.
He said: “I’m not going to make any excuses, the behaviour is outrageous”.
But he argued that his client was “remorseful about the behaviour”.
He continued: “He had too much drink taken, he went to his mother’s house, he was to stay away from his mother’s house… There’s a fractious relationship between them. What happens is she invites him back to the house, he comes to the house and he’s actually allowed to be in the house as long as he doesn’t drink.
“He’d been out somewhere, taken drink, come back and she phoned the police.”
District Judge Rafferty, on passing sentence, noted that the assault on police was aggravated by the racial abuse, imposing a total concurrent sentence of five months in prison on all the charges.
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