Enniskillen Court House, RMGFH04
A 60-year-old Irvinestown farmer who previously used his tractor to destroy two vehicles over a land dispute in 2014 has been jailed for doing it again.
Patrick Donnelly, of Old Junction Road, Cabragh, was sentenced to six months in prison at Enniskillen Magistrates Court over an incident on September 15, 2015. He was previously jailed in August 2014 for ramming two cars with his digger after prospective buyers went to view the land which his ex-wife was selling.
The prosecutor outlined the bizarre incident, which has origins in a bitter divorce settlement in 2013, which resulted in Mr Donnelly losing a third of the land to his wife.
The prosecutor outlined that on September 15, 2015 at around 12 noon 82-year-old Eugene McQuaid and his son Colm were farming on land in Irvinestown which is owned by the defendant’s ex-wife Mary Donnelly.
Eugene had been standing beside his Land Rover when he heard the tractor coming at speed and at a high rev with a grabber attached to the front. He gained access to the field by lifting the gate off with the tractor grabber. The tractor drove through the field in his direction narrowly missing Mr McQuaid and ramming into his Land Rover, toppling it over.
Donnelly then chased Colm McQuaid around the field in the tractor before colliding with his cattle trailer causing it to go over on its side. The defendant then got out of the tractor and squared up to Eugene McQuaid, while clenching his fists and challenged him to a fight. The court heard that he then hit the 82-year-old to the left side of the chest, before he got back into the tractor and then left.
At around 2.20pm, officers called to his home. They claimed he smelled of drink and he was taken to Enniskillen police station where he gave a reading of 69mg in breath, nearly double the legal limit. The court was told that he is a banned driver and that the only way for him to get from the scene to his home address is by a public road. Donnelly denied the offences during police interview.
In court the prosecution made an application for the forfeiture of the tractor, now used in two separate attacks.
Defence solicitor Tommy Owens said that at the time of the incident the defendant had been going through a bad period in his life and had been over indulging in alcohol. In a statement to police at the time he told them he had drank 10 whiskeys and seven to eight pints of Guinness before the incident in the field. The defence said the incident was in part due to a combination of alcohol intake, an existing medical condition and recent provocation.
The solicitor said Donnelly was now “extremely remorseful” of his actions and described the events as “peculiar” as one minute the defendant was pushing the injured party and the next talking to him about grass. He told the court the defendant knew the 82-year-old a lifetime and it was never his intention to injure him.
District judge Nigel Broderick said that in his view this was “quite a harrowing incident” for the injured parties and ruled the custody threshold had been crossed.
In light of the previous incident involving the same tractor and the fact Donnelly was in breach of a number of suspended sentences the judge imposed a total of 15 months imprisonment and ordered that the tractor be forfeited to police.
Donnelly has since appealed the sentence and has been released on his own bail of £500.
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