Enniskillen Courthouse
A 22-YEAR-OLD Enniskillen man, with a “depressing record” of 85 previous convictions, has been given a jail sentence for assaulting his girlfriend twice while on a night out, leaving her with a bloody nose.
Mark Sheridan with an address at Ann Street appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court charged with three counts of common assault, two on his then partner and one on a doorman at a local bar.
The court heard that around 12.25am on Saturday, November 18 the company who monitor the CCTV system in Enniskillen town centre contacted police to say a very distressed female had activated one of the town’s emergency buttons, pleading for help.
When police found the woman she was lying in a doorway with a bloody nose, and a group of people were attending to her.
When the officers asked if it had been Sheridan who’d caused her bloody nose, she nodded, then stated he’d headbutted her.
Prior to that incident, the couple had been socialising in a local bar. CCTV footage showed Sheridan being aggressive to his girlfriend, who was crying.
He then appeared to throw something at her, and was subsequently thrown out of the bar, during which he had an altercation with a staff member at the door.
Sheridan, who in his interview with police had denied the incidents and said he hadn’t been out that night, had initially been charged with assault causing actual bodily harm in relation to the assault outside the bar.
However, the court was told the woman had later refused to engage with police and had made no statement of complaint.
There were also no medical reports for the court to consider. For this reason, the charge was reduced to common assault.
The court was told there had been 11 previous domestic incidents between the couple.
A spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the woman was “particularly vulnerable” given Sheridan’s criminal record and the history of domestic incidents. They added they could not apply for a restraining order as the woman had not been engaging.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said Sheridan had “a depressing record for someone so relatively young.” Defence barrister Ciaran Roddy said it as clear Sheridan, who has been in and out of custody, “has certain issues he has failed to deal with.”
Mr Roddy said Sheridan had been in custody on the matter since it happened in November, meaning he’d effectively already served the equivalent of a six month sentence, asking the judge to take that into account in sentencing.
Judge Broderick said that the court had little choice by to give a custodial sentence, given the nature of the offence.
Stating if Sheridan didn’t “get to grips with your problems” he faced a life in prison, the judge said he’d seen the police body camera footage from the night of the assaults, and it was clear the woman had been distressed.
Referring to the fact she had not made a complaint, Judge Broderick said not following through on complaints was “sadly a common feature” of such cases.
Sheridan was sentenced to four months in custody for the common assaults.
Judge Broderick also activated a suspended sentence, bringing the total to nine months.
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