Enniskillen Court House, RMGFH04
A JUDGE has said an incident in which a man smashed up a car with a hatchet in Lisnaskea was the beginning of “a good old fashioned feud.”
Sean McDonagh (21) of Transa Way, Lisnaskea pleaded guilty to criminal damage and possession of an axe at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday in relation to the incident last year.
At approximately 1.50pm on September 26, police received a report of damage to a woman’s car outside her home in Lisnaskea. She told police McDonagh, who had no previous convictions, had come to her house in a grey Citroen van, and began smashing the Volkswagen with a hatchet. When she asked him to stop she said he told her “I’ll kill you with this, you bitch.”
When arrested and brought to Enniskillen Police Station, McDonagh denied being responsible for the damage, which the woman estimated to cost in the region of £3,500 to £4,000, and denied it was him on the CCTV evidence obtained by police.
Defence solicitor Myles McManus said McDonagh, a married father-of-two, later entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity, and explained there had been an incident in Lisnaskea directly before he had caused the damage to the car.
Mr McManus said McDonagh had been driving with his wife and one of this children when a car approached them rapidly from behind and “rammed” them. He said that incident was still being investigated by police. Mr McManus said McDonagh had “taken the law into his own hands” but realised it was wrong “in the cold light of day” after his anger had passed.
The solicitor said McDonagh wished to apologise to the court and to the woman who owned the car. Mr McManus added the defendant wished to pay for the damage to the car, but they had yet to be furnished with an invoice or proof of the cost of the damage and were relying solely on the word of the woman.
Referring to a GP’s letter and a pre-sentence report that was handed in to the court, Mr McManus said McDonagh was a carer for his father and had “no lifestyle issues” with either drink or drugs. He said the report was “mainly positive” and asked Deputy District Judge Mark Hamill to consider a suspended sentence in order to “leave something hanging over” McDonagh as the incident had been a “one off.”
Judge Hamill said the case had “all the hallmarks of a good old fashioned feud” in the making, but that he wasn’t going to allow that to happen. Stating the two parties could determine the cost of the damage between themselves through civil means, he warned McDonagh if he was to get another conviction for possession of a weapon he would be sent to jail.
The judge sentenced McDonagh to five months in prison on each count, which both sentences to run concurrently, suspended for three years, stating “this nonsense has got to stop.”
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