Your latest round up of cases heard between April 20 and April 24
Cases before Northern Ireland’s courts this past week included a custodial sentence handed down to a 23-year-old man charged with rioting in Ballymena last summer.
Elsewhere, a court heard that a man charged with making a series of threatening social media posts against an MLA claimed they were just “political opponents”.
And an intruder who spent hours trying on assorted drag queen costumes in a Belfast venue was jailed for seven months.
Here is your latest round up of cases before the courts between Monday, April 20 and Friday, April 24.
Man, 23, jailed over summer riots in Ballymena
A 23-year-old man charged with rioting in Ballymena last summer has been handed a custodial sentence.
At Antrim Crown Court on Monday, Kurtis Dunlop, 23, was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment, with half to be served in prison and half on licence.
On Monday, June 9 2025 large-scale disorder broke out on the streets of Ballymena, involving a crowd of rioters and lasting for three consecutive nights. Further violence occurred across Northern Ireland including at Larne, Newtownabbey, Portadown and Derry.
Dunlop, was first observed at Bridge Street in Ballymena, throwing a piece of masonry at a police vehicle. Soon after he, along with other rioters launched a sustained attack on officers throwing fireworks, bottles and other items at police lines.
NI man told MLA he’d be ‘getting smashed to bits’, court hears
A Co Antrim man charged with making a series of threatening social media posts against an MLA claimed they were just “political opponents”, the High Court heard on Tuesday.
Andrew Moran, 30, allegedly issued menacing Facebook comments which left Democratic Unionist Party representative Trevor Clarke fearing he could be attacked.
Moran, of Grange Lane in Newtownabbey, denies counts of improper use of a public electronic communications network, threatening or abusive behaviour, harassment and intimidation of a witness.
He was released on bail but banned from making any contact with Mr Clarke. The South Antrim MLA received the first messages on March 27 this year after announcing on Facebook that he was holding a constituency surgery in the Mallusk area.
Sent from an account in the name of Andrew Thomas Moran, one of the responses warned: “F*** away back off to Randalstown, or you’ll be getting smashed to bits.”
Prosecutors claimed the defendant also posted: “Should have had your arms and legs broken years ago, how you are still sneaking about is beyond me.”
A further message said to have been directed at the politician stated: “The Orangemen don’t want you.”
Mr Clarke received a number of YouTube links from the same account, the court heard, including footage of one man physically assaulting another.
Pastor accused of illegal protest at NI abortion clinic awaits verdict
On Wednesday a judge reserved his verdict in the case of a retired Baptist pastor who is accused of conducting an illegal abortion protest inside the limits of a “safe access zone.”
Having heard the evidence in the case against Clive Johnston last month, counsel for the prosecution and defence supplemented their skeleton arguments before District Judge Peter King at Limavady Magistrates Court, sitting in Coleraine.
Mr Johnston, from the Melmount Road in Sion Mills and who is a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, faces two offences under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023.
The 77-year-old retired pastor is accused of doing an act in a safe access zone at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, “namely conducted a protest with the intent of, or being reckless as to whether, it had the effect of influencing a protected person whether directly or indirectly, in connection with the protected person attending the premises,” on 7 July last year.
The pensioner is further charged that on the same date he “failed to comply with a direction…to leave a safe access zone.”
Man stabbed after neighbourhood feud “boiled over”, court told
A man was stabbed in the chest after his neighbourhood feud with a father and son “boiled over” into weapons being wielded on a north Belfast street, a court heard on Wednesday.
The victim, aged in his thirties, suffered a partially collapsed lung during the alleged attack carried out in broad daylight at Oldpark Avenue on Monday.
Paul John Burns, 46, faces charges of attempted murder and possessing a knife with intent to commit an indictable offence.
His 65-year-old father, Paul Burns Senior, is accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and having an offensive weapon in public, namely a small wooden baton, in connection with the incident.
Both defendants were remanded in custody amid police claims that an ongoing dispute has now developed into an outburst of severe violence.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard they became involved in an altercation with the injured party outside their Oldpark Avenue home shortly before 5pm on April 20.
The man claimed that as he approached his mother’s house two doors away Paul Burns Sr struck him on the elbow with a wooden bat.
Paul Burns Junior then emerged from the defendants’ home holding a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the chest, it was alleged.
A friend of the victim drove him to the Mater Hospital where he subsequently underwent surgery.
PSNI officers to stand trial charged with warning Belfast bars of Covid checks
Two PSNI officers are to stand trial charged with warning Belfast bar owners in advance of Covid-19 checks on their premises, a judge ordered on Thursday.
The policemen appeared in court for a preliminary inquiry into allegations of alerting licenses at three pubs in the city’s Shankill area during the coronavirus pandemic.
Neither officer can be named because of interim reporting restrictions imposed to protect their identities.
Both constables face three counts of misconduct in a public office over a period between December 2021 and March 2022.
Licensees of the Royal Bar, the Diamond Jubilee and Bar Berlin were allegedly forewarned about police inspections to establish if the premises were complying with emergency public health regulations in force at the time, according to the charges.
Restrictions had been put in place on the number of people sharing restaurant and pub facilities as part of social distancing efforts to tackle a surge in the number of Covid cases.
Police officers then carried out checks to ensure the rules were being followed.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or criminal activity by the owners of the three pubs.
One of the defendants is further accused of unlawfully obtaining personal data, namely contained on PSNI computer records.
Intruder who spent hours trying on drag queen costumes in Belfast venue jailed
An intruder who spent hours trying on assorted drag queen costumes in a Belfast city centre venue was jailed for seven months on Friday.
Gvidas Malinauskas, 42, repeatedly entered a dressing room at the Union Street Bar to dress up in wigs, boots and catsuits.
He caused more than £1,000 damage to performers’ clothing left ripped, stained and smelling of urine, prosecutors said.
Malinauskas, a Lithuanian national of no fixed abode, admitted charges of burglary with intent to steal and criminal damage.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard police were alerted after staff at the venue on Union Street discovered an unknown man in a drag queen dressing room on September 21 last year.
CCTV checks showed Malinauskas entering the bar through an unlocked front door at around 9am that morning.
He went upstairs into the dressing room, remaining in the area until he initially left just after midday.
“He was wearing a white fluffy coat, pink boots and a long wig,” a Public Prosecution Service lawyer said.
About an hour later the defendant was observed back in the same area of the premises.
He was still in the same boots but had changed into a beige catsuit, the court heard.
Man who wrapped Nazi flag around his hand before racist attack avoids jail
A man who wrapped a Nazi flag around his hand before punching a man in the face during a racist assault was handed a suspended jail sentence on Friday.
Sentencing Jamie Taylor at Craigavon Magistrates Court, Deputy District Judge Gerard Trainor told the 36-year-old his attack was “racism through and through, naked.”
“Behaviour of this nature is unacceptable in any right-thinking society,” the judge declared and turning to Taylor demanded to know, “have you anything to say?”
“Sorry, Your Worship,” Taylor replied, “sorry to the injured party.”
“I am not convinced that you are,” Judge Trainor told him, adding that “the only question is whether you go to prison today, or the next day when you commit further offences.”
Taylor, from the Tandragee Road in Gilford, had earlier entered guilty pleas to charges of common assault, disorderly behaviour, criminal damage and resisting police, all committed on 27 February this year.
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