A 40-year-old woman who struck a police officer in the groin after being turned away from a flight at City of Derry Airport for being too drunk today walked free from court.
Lisa Conroy appeared at Derry Magistrates Court where she faced charges of assaulting police, resisting police and disorderly behaviour arising out of an incident at the airport on March 25 this year.
The court was told that Conroy, from the Ballycolman Esate in Strabane, had been due to board a flight but was not allowed to get on the plane due to her level of intoxication.
The defendant was then found in the airport toilets by staff and police, where she became abusive and began shouting at swearing at officers.
The court heard that as she was being led away from the terminal, Conroy continued to struggle and struck an officer in the groin.
Once outside the airport, she apologised and later told police she ‘couldn’t remember the incident’.
Defence barrister, Steven Mooney, said that this client had led a trouble free life up to the age of 38, when she then ‘spiralled into alcohol’.
Deputy District Judge Ted Magill told the defendant that ‘it was a shame to see a lady such as yourself’ come before the courts after leading a trouble-free life.
He added that Conroy has ‘severe difficulties’ and ‘didn’t have her troubles to seek’, and that the incident at the airport came as a result of ‘severe intoxication’.
“I accept that you had no recollection of the incident once you sobered up,” he said, before adding that people who assault police ‘normally go to jail’.
However, he said that the defendant had sought help at Woodlea House for her alcohol problem, before handing her a conditional discharge for 18 months.
“Stay out of trouble, and if you’re back here in that time this will be looked at again,” the judge added.
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