A Derry man has been jailed for causing an ‘enormous amount of damage’ to vehicles belonging to his family members.
Harry Boyle, 27, of Galliagh Park, admitted causing criminal damage to two different vehicles, possessing of an article with intent to damage property, and possession of Class C drug Xanax on January 28 of last year.
The cost of damage was said to have been £4,000 and one of the injured parties had to pay £800 to rent a car at the time.
The case had been adjourned to give the defendant time to gather compensation however it was explained that he has been in and out of prison since and had therefore saved nothing.
District Judge Barney McElholm said that if the injured party had to claim through his insurance then he may have had to pay excess and this in turn would have made his policy more expensive.
Defence Counsel Nicki Rountree said her client has been on remand in relation to other matters for ten and a half weeks.
In terms of mitigation Ms Rountree said her client has ‘made amends with his family’ which played a ‘big part’ in his guilty plea.
In terms of the facts surrounding the incident on January 28 of last year, the defence barrister said they were ‘not the actions of a rational man’ as his behaviour had been ‘completely altered by excessive drug taking’.
Judge McElholm commented: “Clearly this man’s problem is drug addiction and abuse of drugs. It defeats me why any human being would want to put Xanax in to their system, particularly to abuse by taking doses way in excess of anything safely prescribed by a doctor.
“It drives people absolutely berserk.”
He added: “I say it day and daily but people keep taking it even though they know how it makes them behave. People taking it with alcohol know what they are doing – putting the rest of the community at risk – yet selfishly continue to do so.”
Addressing the offences before the court, he said Boyle caused an ‘enormous amount of damage to property’.
After having a row with his brother, he explained, Boyle then went to his parent’s house and ‘attacked everything in sight’ and ‘can’t remember anything’ – ‘well it doesn’t surprise me’.
The District Judge said Boyle has an ‘intractable drug problem’ which he keeps talking about addressing ‘but hasn’t’.
He added that it was ‘no-one’s fault but his own as he chooses to live his life like he does’.
The defendant was sentenced to a total of eight months in prison, and a restraining order was granted in favour of one of the injured parties for a period of four years. It prohibits Boyle from harassing, pestering or intimidating the injured part and from going within 100 metres of his home.
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