Here is your round-up of the key cases that were heard before Northern Ireland courts during the week of August 10-14
Cases before the courts this week in Northern Ireland include a man who was sparred jail despite being convicted of causing life-changing injuries to his three-week-old daughter.
Another case saw a man being accused of knocking his partner unconscious with a frying pan during a “jealous rage” which formed part of an alleged five year campaign of domestic abuse.
A 50-year-old Co Down man who was convicted of a violent hammer attack was bailed from prison in order to spend time with his sick father. This was despite 27 previous breaches and reports of reoffending.
Here is your round-up of the key cases that were heard before Northern Ireland courts during the week of August 10-14.
Man allegedly used frying pan to knock partner unconscious in jealous rage
Prosecutors claimed Mindaugas Morkevicius, 39, left a woman bleeding heavily from a serious head injury inflicted during a drunken assault last month. He is also accused of previously scarring her with a knife as part of a five-year campaign of domestic violence.
Morkevicius, of The Old Mill in Killyleagh, remains in custody on charges of causing grievous bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence. He faces three further counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a domestic abuse offence.
Police were alerted after the woman attended a shop in the village on July 24, wounded and carrying her young child.
“She was covered in blood, the back of her head was matted and it was dripping out of her hair,” Crown counsel said. The woman claimed Morkevicius had been drinking spirits at home but became angry and jealous when she had to leave for work.
“It then escalated and the applicant hit her over the head with a frying pan, causing a large laceration to the back of her head and knocking her temporarily unconscious,” the prosecutor submitted.
Man who caused ‘life-changing’ injuries to three-week old spared jail
The defendant, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his now eight-year-old daughter, was handed a sentence of two years and ten months which was suspended for four years. He appeared at Belfast Crown Court where he was sentenced by Judge Mark Reel for causing grievous bodily harm to his baby daughter.
The court heard that whilst he has accepted he was the sole carer of his 22-day-old daughter when she sustained the injuries, he not provided an explanation for how the harm was caused.
On the afternoon of December 30, 2017, the baby’s mother had gone to the hairdresser and left the child with her partner. When the mother left her house, the baby had been fed, changed, was sleeping and was due a feed at around 2pm.
She received a text from her partner saying the baby had not woken for her bottle and she replying by telling her partner to change the nappy at this usually woke the baby up.
The defendant then told his partner that the baby was breathing funny which prompted her to leave the hairdressers early and return home. When she got home, the baby was in her father’s arms and her eyes started fluttering and her lips were smacking.
Accused who attacked man with hammer and wrecked bar bailed to see sick dad
A Co Down man awaiting sentence for attacking another man with a hammer and wrecking bar has been granted bail to allow him to spend time with his ailing father. The 50-year-old from Jubilee Park in Dromore has admitted charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent dating back to August4, 2024 and is due to be sentenced next month.
Objecting to McCourt’s release, Crown barrister Kate McKay spoke of 27 previous breaches of bail and re-offending whilst on bail. Saying alcohol appeared to be a “major issue”, Ms McKay said McCourt’s most recent arrest was in Belfast in May after he tried to get into parked vehicles and caused criminal damage whilst intoxicated.
When Judge Reel asked about the incident in August 2024, he was told by a Constable from the PSNI it was a “sustained assault” upon the injured man who said he was beaten with a hammer and wrecking bar in a house in Banbridge.
The police officer also revealed the injured party suffered “considerable injuries” and added: “He is now deceased – not as a result of his injuries but he did pass away in the interim, before the matter was dealt with by way of a plea from Mr McCourt.”
Man who sought bail for John George search denied bid to holiday in Alicante
Last January Gerald Verner was denied a bail variation sought to enable him to travel to Spain to help in the search for murdered Belfast man John George, whose remains were subsequently discovered on the outskirts of Alicante.
The 37-year old former soldier was back in court today where the application to vary his bail to allow him to go on a four-day holiday with his partner was made and refused.
From Inverary Avenue in Belfast, Verner is facing a number of offences including firearms and drugs charges. Asking for a variation of his client’s bail at Belfast Crown Court, a solicitor told Judge Mark Reel that Verner’s partner had booked a four-day trip to Alicante.
Providing details of the flight plans and the hotel, Verner’s solicitor said dates for the holiday were this Friday to next Monday.
Opposing the application, a Crown barrister raised several concerns including a risk of further offending.
Four men remanded over alleged £1.7million cocaine bust in Belfast
Brian McMullan, 34, Lee McKee, 26, Michael Moyes, 27, and Abdullah Hassan, 33, were arrested following transportations from a city centre apartment block to two waiting vehicles on Monday evening. All four men appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on charges including possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.
An investigating detective said police observed the suspected handovers at locations close to a block of flats on McAuley Street. McMullan, of Madrid Street in Belfast, allegedly left the complex with a large bag before carrying out separate interactions with his co-accused in the neighbourhood.
It was claimed that Moyes, of Stanhope Street in the city, received a package containing five blocks of cocaine while he waited in a Renault Clio car.
Mullan also passed a further three blocks into a Mercedes van jointly occupied by McKee, of Alexandra Terrace in Crumlin, and Hassan, from St James’ Crescent in Belfast, according to police.
Dad-of-seven who carried out sex act in Belfast city centre is jailed
Petru Guti will not be freed from custody as he is expected to be deported back to his home country. The 53-year-old, formerly of Runnymede Parade, in the Malone Road area of south Belfast, appeared at Belfast Crown Court via video link from custody for an arraIgnment hearing before Judge Mark Reel.
He faced two counts of committing a solo sex act which was of a “lewd and disgusting nature and outraged public decency” on August 6, 2025, in Bedford Street. When the charge was put to him by the court clerk through a Romanian interpreter, Guti replied: “Guilty.”
Following his guilty plea, prosecution lawyer David McNeill told the court that the second count of committing a lewd sex act the following day in the same street was being “left on the books in the usual terms”.
Mum admits causing death of 8-week-old son and attempted murder of daughter
A 34-year-old woman wept in the dock of Belfast Crown Court today (Thursday), where she admitted causing the death of her baby son and attempting to murder her daughter. The woman, who can’t be named due to a reporting restriction, will be sentenced for the two offences later this month.
She stood trial in 2023 on charges of murdering her eight-week-old son and attempting to murder his two-year-old sister. Both children sustained stab wounds inflicted by their mother in their home on July 27, 2021.
They were rushed to the Accident and Emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children. Whilst the young girl was successfully treated for a stab wound to her chest, her baby brother was pronounced dead at 9pm.
At the conclusion of the trial in March 2023, the woman was convicted by a jury on both charges, and the following month, she was handed a minimum 20-year sentence.
Woman burgled house and dressed up in the owner’s clothes, court told
Angel-Louise Horner, 20, of Fairview Park, Articlave in Coleraine, has been in custody on charges of burglary, attempted theft, criminal damage and failing to provide a specimen.
Belfast Crown Court heard that on August 31, 2025, police received a report at 10.45am from the owner of a house on the Kilraughts Road in Ballymoney who said that when she arrived home she found a female in her property.
“The female was in the woman’s downstairs bathroom. Police arrived and spoke to the homeowner who said the female had entered the property through an upstairs bathroom and caused the room to flood,” said prosecution barrister Daniel McCarthy.
“This damaged the floorboards and brought down the ceiling in the kitchen below. The injured party told police the female was wearing the homeowner’s clothes and she found a number of her own belongings in an empty handbag.”
The attempted theft charge related to a vehicle log book, keys, costume jewellery and tobacco found in the handbag.
Man breached Sexual Offences Prevention Order just days after release
A Co Fermanagh man who breached the terms of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order just days after being released from prison has been handed another custodial sentence. As he imposed a 12-month term upon Emmet Ryan Rice, which was divided equally between custody and licence, Judge Brian Sherrard warned that repeated breaches of court orders would lead to longer prison sentences.
Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard that Rice was made the subject of a five-year SOPO imposed at Enniskillen Magistrates Court in October 2022.
The 28-year old breached that court order twice last December by having contact with both the mother of a victim of his previous offending and a vulnerable adult.
Police called to Rice’s address at Main Street in Maguiresbridge on December 8, 2025 to investigate claims there had been associations and interactions with a vulnerable female at the start of that month. Whilst at the flat, the mother of a victim of Rice’s was in the property with him.
Man breached bail by drinking after woman fell off his boat and drowned
Craig Mark David Price, 37, of Ballybeen Square in Dundonald, is currently awaiting trial next month on charges of non-fatal strangulation or asphyxiation and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent. He is further accused, and denies, a domestic abuse offence and threats to damage property.
Belfast Crown Court heard Price is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to common assault and threatening and abusive behaviour to his ex-partner.
In relation to charges which Price is to stand trial on at Downpatrick Crown on September 28, 2026, prosecution barrister Breige Gilmore said there was an incident on January 1, 2025 in relation to the same female. She said Radius Housing informed police that there had been an activation of a domestic violence alarm relating to Price’s ex-partner.
“Once the alarm is activated it starts to record and operators said they could hear a male person threatening the injured party,” outlined Ms Gilmore.
“They heard the male say: ‘You’re going to get a bullet in the head’.”
Man who admitted offences aggravated by domestic abuse gets Probation Order
Vincent Brian Francis Kane, who is 24 and from McArthur Avenue in Ballymoney, was told his offending “smacks of immature entitlement.” Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard all the offences committed last August were aggravated by way of involving domestic abuse.
At 9am on Saturday August 30, 2025 the injured party, who at the time was Kane’s girlfriend of around two weeks, called police from her bedroom requesting Kane be removed from her property.
When officers arrived a short time later, Kane had left but they were informed he had broken into the property via a first-floor window and that the female occupant was frightened of him due to previous violence.
In a further statement, the injured party said she had entered into a relationship with Kane around the second week of August. She spoke of a number of different incidents before she called the PSNI to her home on August 30.
Kane subsequently pleaded guilty to a total of five offences he committed between August 14 and 30 – namely criminal damage, three counts of common assault and one count of domestic abuse.
Chloe Mitchell’s family welcome judge’s push for murder trial to be listed
The family of Chloe Mitchell have welcomed a judge’s statement that he wants the trial of a man accused of murdering the Co Antrim woman to be listed “as soon as possible”. In a statement, Ms Mitchell’s family described it as a “big step forward”.
A barrister told Belfast Crown Court that the trial is expected to take four to five weeks. The case was mentioned on Friday, where legal teams discussed ongoing psychiatric evaluations of the accused, Brandon John Rainey.
Ms Mitchell, 21, was found dead in Ballymena, Co Antrim, days after going missing in June 2023.
Rainey, 29, formerly of James Street in Ballymena, has been charged with murdering Ms Mitchell and attempting to prevent the burial of her body. He pleaded not guilty to those charges at a hearing in 2024.
Proceedings in the case had already been delayed in March this year when Rainey parted company with his legal representatives.
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