A Portadown man who was acquitted of the murder of Robert Hamill more than 20 years ago, had sentencing deferred for a year over a different sectarian assault.
At the County Court in Craigavon on Wednesday, Paul Mark Rodney Hobson lodged an appeal against jail sentences totalling seven months, handed down by a lower court last year.
The 49-year-old was due to appeal his convictions for common assault and criminal damage, which would have seen the victim Martin McWilliams having to testify again.
Defence counsel David McKeown told the court however, that Hobson now accepts his guilt.
Opening the facts of the case, a prosecuting lawyer told Judge Donna McColgan KC it was on 23 June 2024 when Mr McWilliams had attended a tanning salon on the Mahon Road in Portadown.
Hobson and his friend 44-year-old Simon Millar had been sitting on a bench nearby and with the victim wearing a Mexico City GAA top, they told him “you can’t be wearing that f****** shirt around here.”
The victim had previously given evidence the pair had called him a fenian and the court heard on Wednesday that as he was trying to get into his car, “they wouldn’t let him get in.”
Hobson threw a punch but missed and was himself punched instead.
Millar, from Fitzgerald Park in Portadown, tried to intervene and assaulted Mr McWilliams but the victim was able to defend himself again, punching him in the face as well.
Millar had also been convicted of assault but his five-month jail sentence was suspended.
Having gotten into his car to drive away, Hobson and Millar kicked and punched Mr McWilliam’s vehicle, causing several dents and scrapes which has cost more than £4,000 to fix.
The court also heard that six days before the incident, Hobson had been given a suspended jail sentence over a separate assault.
At the contested hearing last year, Hobson, also from Fitzgerald Park in Portadown, gave evidence on his own behalf and denied that he had chased the victim, called him a fenian or that he had prevented him from getting into his car.
In court on Wednesday however, Mr McKeown said the 49-year-old now accepts the assault.
While the barrister conceded that it was “highly unedifying behaviour, not helped by the fact that he had been consuming alcohol that day,” he contended that his comments were not intended as a sectarian slur.
Mr McKeown said that according to Hobson, because the incident happened close to Portadown Football Club, his comment was directed to Mr McWilliams wearing what he thought was a rival top.
Urging the judge not to jail Hobson but to adopt a different approach, Mr McKeown said that if the 49-year-old was sent to jail there would be no way he could pay compensation, or pay for the damage to the victim’s car.
He submitted that in the background, Hobson was also experiencing mental health difficulties so deferring the sentence, would allow an opportunity for those to be explored.
Judge McColgan told Hobson, “this was a nasty incident and it was a sectarian incident, regardless of what nonsense I’m being told today.”
She added that Mr McKeown “has managed to convince me” to defer the case to allow time for Hobson to pay for the damage he caused.
Deferring the case to 20 January 2027, Judge McColgan ordered Hobson to pay £2,150 within six months.
Advising Hobson to “stay out of trouble” until then, she freed him on bail but with a warning that “there is absolutely no promises” as to the ultimate sentence.
Robert Hamill was beaten by a loyalist mob in the early hours of April 27, 1997 and his murder was the subject of a public inquiry because it was alleged that four police officers had been positioned in a police vehicle near the scene of the attack, but did not intervene.
A total of six individuals were charged with the murder but the PPS withdrew charges against five of them.
The case against Hobson proceeded to trial in June 1999 and although the case was dropped and Hobson was acquitted of the murder, he was however, handed a four-year sentence for affray.
