A 43-year-old woman who has been “a plague on society for half her life” has been told the only place for her is “a tent on top of Slieve Donard”.
Jana Forker, now with an address in Rath Cuain, Warrenpoint, has amassed over 160 criminal convictions, and appeared in Newry Magistrates’ Court charged with a litany of further offences, including beating an elderly man in the city’s bus station.
On August 29, police received a call for assistance shortly before 3pm from staff at Newry bus station.
A prosecution lawyer told the court that Forker had “gone mad and assaulted a male member of the public who’s actually known to the bus station staff as he’s a regular traveller to medical appointments as a result of a pre-existing injury”.
Forker was “highly intoxicated, extremely aggressive, confrontational and unpleasant”.
Police spoke to the injured party who said “he’d been sitting minding his own business when the defendant had come up to him – he was wearing a Banbridge rugby jersey – and started to abuse him verbally”.
The prosecutor continued: “And then, without provocation – this is all caught on CCTV – she grabs him, pulls him to the ground and starts punching him.”
The bus station staff rush out to assist the complainant and when police arrive they observe he has an egg shaped swelling to the front of his head.
The victim was wearing a hearing aid at the time and this was pulled from him by Forker.
As a result he was taken to hospital. When a female member of staff at the bus station attempted to intervene Forker grabbed her by her uniform and pushed her away.
Police arrived a short time later and she continued to be “aggressive and unpleasant” for more than an hour.
Forker was so intoxicated she required hospital treatment and was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital. While there, waiting to be triaged, she kicksed out at two constables and attempted to bite them.
The court heard that when she has sobered up, she is interviewed, and she gives “some completely preposterous story that she is having a smoke and a coffee with the alleged complainant”.
“‘I’m very quick with my reflexes, but I didn’t attempt to headbutt anybody,”she said, and she basically blames the police and says police are out to catch her off guard.
The prosecutor says Forker denies any of the incidents happened but when she is shown CCTV footage “she doesn’t know what happened but eventually apologises” stating that the footage “makes her feel particularly bad”.
On September 2, just a few days later, police receive a report at 5.20pm. A man was conducting his business as a door-to-door salesman when he approaches Forker’s address where he’s verbally abused.
He recognises that there’s going to be a confrontation but at this point Forker grabs him; he drops his backpack, which contains his notebook and tablet.
Police attend the address and they’re invited in by the defendant.
Police spot the injured party’s equipment lying on the floor of the living room and his DVD on top of the stack of her DVDs.
She confirmed that they were items police were looking for but she denied taking them, saying “she left her door open, and there were lots of bad people in the area, so someone else must have left them on her premises”.
On October 26, police were called to an address at 10.30am. Police speak to the complainant, who alleges that she’s having ongoing issues with her neighbour – the defendant.
Forker approached her, called her names, was aggressive when she was having a cup of coffee and when she was sitting down was then subject to an unprovoked attack whereby the defendant pulled her hair, while using racial slurs.
On November 1, at 10pm, Forker, having been released on bail in relation to the previous matter, tormented her neighbour all evening with a foul-mouth diatribe with a racial undertone, leaving the complainant “frightened”.
In custody, and “out of the blue” Forker kicks a female constable and grabs her fingers and bends them back.
A defence barrister said Forker was a “lady who was heavily reliant upon her father”.
“Her father, unfortunately, passed away, and this was a big strain upon Miss Forker in relation to trying to raise her children on her own. She accepts that the pressures and strain, in relation to her father passing and the loss of her accommodation, is a factor in her mental health.”
The barrister alluded to previous “very abusive and difficult relationships” where she was the subject of “quite severe domestic abuse”.
District Judge Eamon King, in passing a combination of sentences totalling five months, said: “This lady has 161 previous convictions.
“She’s appeared in court in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 2024. Those courts are in Downpatrick, Belfast, Ards, Lisburn, Coleraine, Derry, and now she’s here in Newry and we’re told that she’s now got permanent accommodation in Warrenpoint for the first time in a number of years.
“I have to say that I am anxious to the fact that this lady is now accommodated in this area, because if she continues on the type of behaviour that she has engaged in since 2004 until now – 20 years – I’ll be sick of the sight of her, because I will see her in this court every day of the week.
“Half of her life she has been a plague on society and people who have had the misfortune of coming into contact with her.
“The unfortunate individual in the bus station, waiting on his bus, assaulted by her…then we go to September 2, a man going about his business is accosted by her and has his laptop stolen.
“Then we have an assault on a foreign national, who is here holding down a job trying to improve and better her life. On that occasion, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and allowed her out on bail. That consideration was thrown back in my face because, on November 1, she’s back in court again for harassment of the same individual and assaulting police officers.
“I think I remarked before, the only place this lady could be accommodated is in a tent on the top of Slieve Donard, where at least then, people wouldn’t be close enough to her to be the focus of her unwanted attention.”
