Spurned lover in vandalism spree has sentence reduced

A WOMAN caught on CCTV using a drill to damage her former lover’s car initially told police that she was building a bird table, a court has heard.

Anna Maguire (56) of Glengorm Drive, Coleraine, yesterday successfully appealed her suspended sentence at the County Court in the town.

Her defence lawyer, Aaron Thompson, had argued it would prevent the defendant being able to travel to New Zealand to visit her daughter, which the judge accepted.

The original five months jail term, suspended for three years, was instead replaced with 120 hours of community service.

She must also pay £500 compensation to her victim, Andy Farrer, and is banned from contacting Mr Farrer or being near his home.

A previous court heard Maguire, a day care centre worker for people with learning disabilities,

Won appeal: Anna Maguire

used the drill to damage her former fiance’s car, before poisoning his plants and putting superglue in his house door lock.

Mr Farrer claimed at an earlier court the campaign of harassment erupted after he ended his relationship with Maguire because she had an “affair”.

Yesterday, prosecutor Breige Gilmore said after they broke up in 2014, there was an incident in February 2016, when a car belonging to Mr Farrer’s then partner, was covered in paint outside his house. CCTV was installed and on a later date the letterbox at Mr Farrer’s home was glued shut and the footage showed Maguire in a hoodie at the letterbox at 4am.

On May 28 last year, Mr Farrer and his partner returned home and found the front door lock glued and numerous scratches and a flat tyre on his car. The CCTV was scanned which, Ms Gilmore told the court, showed Maguire using a drill in the area of the front bumper and at a flat tyre on his car.

When police spoke to Maguire they found Superglue and a cordless drill in her house, along with drill bits in her car.

She initially denied causing any damage and instead said she was making a bird table at work.

Judge Desmond Marrinan said: “I can only assume you lost the run of yourself and due to the emotions welling up inside you, you behaved out of character, unfortunately for some period of time.”