A woman was forced to abandon her car in the middle of the Northway in Portadown as she was being attacked by her then partner, a court has heard.
Christopher Orr, of Newry Street in Markethill, became paranoid after a recruitment advert for the Prison Service came on the radio, lashing out at his partner who he believed was conspiring against him.
The 34-year-old appeared before Armagh magistrates’ Court on Tuesday on a raft of charges over a series of different dates.
The injured party first reported to police on December 1 at 8.30am that Orr threw a tin of beer at the front of her car.
She was driving out of her housing development when she came upon him in the middle of the road.
When he saw her, he stood in front of her vehicle in an attempt, she felt, to stop her and hurled the can of beer as she drove around him to avoid him. It struck the front passenger panel.
CCTV was captured showing the defendant approaching the vehicle and throwing the can at the side of her car.
She made a statement to police, and in addition, she indicated that she had referenced another incident on August 30, when she was driving along Northway with Orr, who was a passenger in her car.
It was then and an ad came on the radio, advertising recruitment for the Prison Service.
The prosecution told the court how Orr “became paranoid and irate and began to behave irrationally in the car, accusing her of conspiring against him”.
They were waiting in traffic, and when he was stationary, “he pulled her hair, ripping out a handful of hair”.
She fled from the vehicle in the middle of the road. Orr then began to punch and kick the central console of the vehicle, causing damage to the air conditioning unit.
The victim provided police with a picture of the damage and a screenshot in relation to the replacement part.
The defendant then left the vehicle, and the complainant is able to resume her journey without Orr in the car.
She told police that she’s been trying to let the relationship, in her words, “fizzle out”, and has told the defendant the relationship is finished, but he continued to show up at her address, “perhaps some five or six times, even to the extent of letting himself in”.
The prosecution added: “She’s made it clear that he’s not wanted and in fact, this has happened even when she’s asleep, resulting in her barricading the doors to prevent him effecting entry.”
On a separate set of charges, Orr was reported again, by the same injured party, of stealing her Galaxy phone, which was in a bedside drawer sometime between November 25 and December 9.
She was able to use the Find My Phone app and the phone was located in the smartphone repair shop on High Street, Portadown.
She visited the shop and was advised that a male had attended the shop two weeks previously.
The explanation Orr gave was that it was girlfriend’s own phone and that he was entitled to sell it on her behalf.
Police attended the shop on December 12 where the mobile phone was located and CCTV was checked, which identified Orr entering the store and allowing the mobile phone to them.
The phone was recovered and returned to the complainant.
The defendant was arrested and interviewed during which he denied taking the phone. He denied taking the phone to the shop in Portadown, saying “he hadn’t been in the shop within the last 10 years”.
Orr’s defence solicitor told the court that his client has been “off drugs for some time now” and highlighted the fact it’s when he drinks “that’s typically what brings into the attention of police”.
“Between 2012 in 2018 he was able to stay out of trouble, so it seems, when he’s not drinking, he’s not getting himself into trouble,” he said.
“The relationship between himself and complainant in these two matters is finished; there’s no hope, or prospect, of reconciliation, as I understand it.”
District Judge Anne Marshall said: “These are extremely serious matters, and it’s aggravated by the fact that there’s so many dates, and this complainant, this victim, is obviously very much in fear of him.
“There’s threats to kill, threats to damage property, actually damaging property. So the appropriate overall sentence is one of eight months in custody.”
Orr’s offences included harassment, threats to kill, threats to damage property, theft, fraud by false representation, criminal damage, attempted criminal damage and common assault.
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