Your latest round up of cases heard between March 30-April 3.
Despite many courts being in recess for Easter, some cases were still heard this past week. They included a Northern Ireland music teacher in court over allegations he trafficked and drugged a child for sex.
Also a transgender woman avoided jail over a homophobic attack on a neighbour, calling him a ‘fa***t’.
Meanwhile a man also avoided jail after being caught engaging in what a judge called a ‘disgusting’ sex act at a train station by a young boy.
And a man appeared in court in Dublin on Good Friday after an extradition request following the murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast six years ago.
Here is your latest round up of cases before the courts between Monday, March 30 and Friday, April 3.
Victim was ‘stabbed seven times’ in ‘frenzied and brutal attack’
A Lithuanian man accused of murdering a man in a Portadown flat has told a court that he was acting in self-defence.
Rolandas Kvederis, 49, died after sustaining seven stab wounds to his neck and lower back inside the property in Ranfurley Road on Thursday, March 26.
Ruslanas Kovalkovas, 51, appeared in the dock of Lisburn Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with his murder.
Kovalkovas, who was living at the Ranfurley Road apartment at the time of the incident, was denied bail and remanded in custody.
At the outset of the remand hearing, when asked whether he understood the charge he was facing, Kovalkovas – wearing a grey track suit – spoke through an interpreter to deny murder.
“I did not kill him, I was defending myself,” he told district judge Rosemary Watters.
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Man in 40s charged with murder of Denis Donaldson
A man has been charged with murder as part of the investigation into the killing of Denis Donaldson nearly 20 years ago.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 20 years.
Antoin Duffy, aged in his 40s and of no fixed abode, appeared before a Dublin court charged with the murder of ex-Sinn Fein official Donaldson in Co Donegal in 2006.
He was arrested earlier in the day at Casement Aerodrome following his extradition from Scotland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.
Appearing before the Special Criminal Court on Monday afternoon, he was charged with the murder of Mr Donaldson at Cloghercor, Doochary on a date unknown between April 3 and 4 in 2006.
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Snapchat pervert who pestered girls for sexual images back in jail
A convicted sex offender has appeared in court facing multiple allegations of breaching court orders.
Appearing at Coleraine Magistrates Court by video link from police custody on Tuesday, 38-year-old Gary Savage was charged with a total of seven offences, alleged to have been committed between 1 September last year and 28 February 2026.
Savage, originally from Ballynahinch but now of no fixed abode, Newtownabbey, faces six charges of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and one of breaching the requirements of the sex offenders register.
The SOPO, an order designed to protect the public and potential victims from further offending, was first imposed as long ago as 2018 when Savage was sentenced for sexual communication with a female child “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification” and attempting to cause her to engage in sexual activity.
Since then, Savage has repeatedly been before the courts for a multitude of SOPO breaches and further offending.
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Man avoids jail after engaging in ‘disgusting’ sex act at busy NI train station
A man whose partner performed a sex act on him in full view of a busy train station, including a 13-year-old boy, has been handed a four-month prison sentence on Tuesday, suspended for two years.
Sentencing Martin McMillan at Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, District Judge Nigel Broderick told the 40-year-old: “This was a disgusting act to be engaged in.”
He added that as well as multiple other people on the opposite platform, there had also been a 13-year-old boy witnessing the offending by him and 48-year-old Lisa O’Neill.
Last week O’Neill, with an address at Maple Crescent in Dunmurry, was put on probation for nine months after she admitted an offence of indecent behaviour.
McMillan, with an address on Gallows Street in Dromore, admitted the same charge and re-opening the facts of the case on Tuesday, a prosecution lawyer said it was the teenage schoolboy who contacted police about the incident at Antrim Train Station, around 8pm on 14 December last year.
O’Neill, the court heard, “was performing a sex act” on McMillan (40), on the platform at the train station.
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Man accused of domestic abuse granted bail but excluded from part of Belfast
A west Belfast man awaiting trial for charges including domestic abuse and assaulting his partner was granted bail on Wednesday.
As part of the conditions for his release, Robert Martin Braniff has been banned from contacting the complainant either directly or indirectly.
The application to release the 41-year old, from Norglen Road, was made and granted at Belfast Crown Court and he attended via a videolink with HMP Maghaberry.
Braniff is awaiting trial on four charges he denies dating back to March 3, 2025 – namely possessing a knife with intent, assaulting a female, stealing two of her phones and engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive to her and likely to cause her to suffer physical or psychological harm.
As his pending trial has been exempted from the current industrial action, it is listed to proceed later this month.
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Transgender woman avoids jail over homophobic attack on neighbour
A transgender woman who subjected a neighbour to homophobic abuse when she assaulted him has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
District Judge Amanda Brady told Michelle James she was satisfied “that the custody threshold has been crossed,” particularly given the fact the offence was aggravated by reason of hostility.
Imposing a four-month prison sentence, Judge Brady told the 64-year-old that given her guilty plea, she would suspend the sentence for 18 months.
Appearing at court on Wednesday by video link from the women’s prison, James, with an address on Main Road in Cloghy, entered a guilty plea to a single charge of common assault, arising from an incident on 2 December 2024.
Opening the facts of the case, the prosecution counsel told the court it was just after 2.30 that afternoon when the victim reported that James had assaulted him.
He told police that having put rubbish in the bins, he was in the communal stairwell when an “intoxicated” James called him “a f****** fa***t” and threw a punch at him.
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Man accused of sending threatening messages to MLA faces court
A man has appeared before court accused of sending threatening messages to DUP MLA Trevor Clarke.
Andrew Moran, 30, of Grange Lane, Newtownabbey, faces seven charges in total.
They include sending threatening electronic messages, possession of cannabis and breaching a restraining order.
There is also a charge for intimidation of a witness on March 29 2026 for allegedly threatening Mr Clarke for speaking with police, and for allegedly harassing Mr Clarke between March 27 and April 1.
Following a brief mention at Ballymena Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning, Moran was remanded into custody after the case was adjourned on request of the defence because it was not ready.
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Teacher in court over allegations he trafficked and drugged a child for sex
A music teacher and the manager of a youth orchestra has appeared in court charged with supplying drugs and exploiting a child for sex.
Appearing in the dock of Belfast Magistrates Court on Thursday, 48-year-old Robert James Briscoe confirmed his identity and that he understood the eight charges against him.
On an indictment covering a time period between 30 September 2025 and 10 March 2026, Briscoe faces two counts of human trafficking of a child, and single offences of paying for the sexual services of the child, administering a substance to the complainant in order to overpower or stupefy them to facilitate a sex offence and attempting to pay for sexual services.
The 48-year-old, with an address at Seamount in Belfast, faces three drug charges, accusing him of possessing and intending to supply Class A methamphetamine and simple possession of Class B nandrolone.
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Street preacher ‘subjected Belfast’s deputy Lord Mayor to foul-mouthed rant’
A street preacher allegedly subjected Belfast’s deputy Lord Mayor to a foul-mouthed rant outside City Hall, the High Court heard on Thursday.
Prosecutors claimed Councillor Paul Doherty had to retreat amid fears Colin Houston would assault him during last week’s confrontation.
Houston, 61, is also accused of swearing at council security staff who asked him to take down a Jesus flag and then injuring two PSNI officers.
The Christian pastor, of Forthriver Way in Belfast, faces charges of common assault, three assaults on police, disorder behaviour and resisting arrest over the incidents.
He was granted bail but barred from returning to the city centre.
Houston allegedly became abusive while standing at the gates of City Hall with a loud speaker and flag on March 23.
It was claimed that he initially shouted at an elderly member of the public: “Shut your mouth you f***ing c**t’.”
Mr Doherty, an SDLP councillor and current deputy Lord Mayor, alleged the street preacher then directed his aggression at him during a confrontation in the grounds.
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Man appears in court over murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast
A man has appeared before the High Court as he faces extradition over the murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast.
Jonathan Gill, 44, with an address at Malahide Road, Clontarf, appeared before Judge Barry O’Donnell on Friday on the foot of a warrant in Northern Ireland for him to be charged with the murder of Lawlor, which occurred in the Ardoyne area of Belfast on April 4, 2020.
He is also to be charged with possession of a 9mm pistol on a date unknown between April 2nd and April 5th 2020.
READ MORE HERE
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