A Derry man who screamed racist abuse at two sisters and their children as he smashed their car’s windows has been jailed for eight months.
Cathal Ebbs, 43, of Primrose Street, appeared before Derry Magistrates Court today charged with four counts of common assault, possession of a Class B drug, two counts of disorderly behaviour, criminal damage and resisting police.
The offences took place on April 15, 2016.
The court heard that two sisters were sitting in their car with children aged seven-years-old and two-years-old in the back seat when Ebbs began to shout ‘bizarre’ racial slurs at them, calling them ‘Nazi Jews’.
Ebbs then approached the car with a brick and repeatedly smashed the windscreen with it.
He was described as ‘snarling and shouting’.
The women and children in the car were ‘terrified and covered in glass’ and the children were ‘screaming in terror’.
Ebbs continued to smash the car windows and then put his head through a window and one of the women was afraid he was ‘going to grab her’.
He continued to shout threats before finally walking away and making his way back to his Primrose Street home.
When police arrived at his home to arrest him, Ebbs shouted at them calling them ‘RUC scum’.
Police recovered the brick he had used in the attack and also found a bag of cannabis at his home.
When arrested he said: “I did it to the whore scumbag, the brick’s on the table.”
He then struggled during arrest but during interview made full admissions and ‘showed no remorse whatsoever’ and was derogatory about the injured parties throughout.
One of the victims realised later that she actually knew Ebbs and realised that she had been in a relationship with him some 24 years ago.
They had not had any contact over the years and the only reason the woman could think that he had carried out the attack and made threats was that it was ‘motivated by the fact she has police officers in her family’.
The seven-year-old boy present during the attack was described as being so traumatised that he is scared to be left alone in a room since the incident.
Stephen Chapman, defence solicitor: “Mr Ebbs behaviour was disgraceful, I don’t believe there was any physical injury caused but regardless of this, the distress caused, particularly to the children, was probably more damaging than any minor physical injury.”
Mr Chapman said that Ebbs had admitted the offences and ‘doesn’t have a record to speak of’, except for one motoring offence 20 years ago.
He added: “His mental health isn’t in the best of shape.”
District Judge Barney McElholm retorted: “There is very little wrong with him that can’t be cured by him taking his medication and not taking illegal drugs.”
Mr Chapman replied and said it was a ‘very strange case’ and ‘totally unprovoked’.
He added that it was ‘bizarre’ and that although there was a link between him and one of the women they had not been in contact for over 20 years.
Judge McElholm said: “This was a disgraceful incident and completely terrifying for the two ladies and heaven only knows the emotional and psychological damage it has done to the children.”
He said that Ebbs had told police: “I just seen a n*****, Jew, b******, paedophile family sitting in a car and I smashed their windows in.”
Judge McElholm directly addressed Ebbs and told him to stop looking over at the victims, who were weeping in court, and told him to look at him.
He said: “You are a disgrace, your behaviour is disgraceful and it is not right that this sort of behaviour is perpetrated upon an innocent family with two young children.”
Judge McElholm said that it had been a ‘sustained attack’ on the family while inside the car and sentenced Ebbs to eight months in prison and ordered him to pay an offender levy of £25.
He added: “If I felt I realistically could have given him more, I would have given it to him.”
Sometime later and after the victims and their family had left the court, Ebbs’ defence solicitor, Mr Chapman, said that he had been instructed to appeal the sentence handed down.
Judge McElholm said he was ‘obliged’ to grant Ebbs bail for appeal but stressed that the victims and their families are made aware that Ebbs would be released pending an appeal hearing.
He granted Ebbs his own bail of £500 to reside at his Primrose Street home and have no contact with the injured parties.
He was also ordered to re-engage immediately with his GP and take all medication as instructed.
He was also warned not to take any non-prescribed drugs and will be subject to random testing.
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