A Co Armagh man has been sentenced to seven months in prison fracturing man’s nose outside Lurgan bar, court hears.
Alexander Turkington, 31, of Meadowvale, Waringstown appeared at Craigavon Magistrates’ on Friday charged with causing actual bodily harm.
The incident was first brought to police attention at around 3am on June 25, last year, when injured party appeared at Lurgan police station with a fractured nose to report an assault.
He told police that the defendant had struck him outside a bar in Lurgan that same night.
Police gathered CCTV footage of the assault, which clearly showed the defendant punching the injured party.
On July 22, Turkington was brought in for police questioning and during the interview he admitted striking the injured party, but claimed it was in self-defence.
Court heard that Turkington, at the time, was serving a suspended sentence for a similar offence from January of the same year.
Defence counsel told the court that the defendant has “since been fully engaged” with probation and was working towards a lorry licence to gain employment.
According to Turkington’s defence, probation supported a combination order, which may also help the defendant “resolve his anger problems”.
District Judge Bernie Kelly commented that she could see a cycle in his offences, stating: “It’s simple – you get drunk, then you get into a fight”.
Judge Kelly imposed the “only possible penalty” she thought appropriate sentencing Turkington to five months in prison.
She also gave him a reduced penalty of two months from his suspended sentence to run consecutively with his other charge.
Judge Kelly stated that this measure was taken “for the protection of the public over your rehabilitation”.
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