Man jailed for 10 months after attack at nightclub

A STRABANE man who struck a man in a night club with hard plastic glasses leaving him needing 14 stitches in his face has been jailed.

During a sitting of Londonderry Crown Court yesterday Martin Lindsay (19) from Canal Side in Strabane admitted one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on February 21, 2016.

The court heard that the injured party was in a night club in Strabane and was dancing with his cousin when an altercation broke out between his cousin and another woman. The man moved to intervene to break up the altercation when Lindsay approached holding a hard plastic glass in each hand. He struck the injured party three or four times to the face causing injuries that required nine stitches in one side and five in the other.

Judge Philip Babington said it was lucky he did not lose his sight.

Lindsay was arrested in July and initially denied it was him but when shown CCTV he accepted it was him in the footage.

The court heard that despite this Lindsay elected for a jury trial. His defence was going to be that it was someone else who carried out the assault.

Eventually Lindsay admitted the assault.

Judge Babington said the injured party “was subjected to a completely unprovoked assault” and that the hard plastic glasses could be as sharp as glass ones. The judge said he had outlined the full case because Lindsay had admitted it in the presence of his solicitor and then denied it.

He was sentenced to 10 months in prison.