Man with low IQ avoids jail for shining a laser at PSNI helicopter
A BELFAST man was yesterday handed a two-year probation order for shining a laser pen into the cockpit of a police helicopter as it provided crowd cover at a Northern Ireland international football match.
Belfast Crown Court heard that it was the second time Karl Barkley had been convicted of the same offence.
The 20-year-old, formerly of Cambrai Street but now living at Crumlin Gardens in the city, had pleaded guilty to a single charge of recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft.
Prosecution lawyer Gareth Purvis told Judge Gordon Kerr QC that on October 5, 2017, the PSNI had deployed its helicopter to Windsor Park where Northern Ireland were playing Germany in a World Cup qualifier.
The helicopter pilot said that as his crew was keeping an eye on crowds below, a laser pen was shone into the cockpit at an angle of 30 degrees, forcing him to move the aircraft away from the direction of the blinding light.
He manoeuvred the helicopter back to its original position only for it to be hit for a second time by the laser pen, and he was only able to see where he was going by using the machine’s navigational equipment.
The judge was told that before retreating to the safety of Belfast City Airport, the captain and his two-man crew were able to direct police on the ground to the source of the laser pen — a house in Cambrai Street, off the Shankill Road.
Mr Purvis said officers went to the house and arrested Barkley.
He added that the defendant had a criminal record of nine offences and “has a previous conviction in 2015 for this type of offence, and been dealt with by way of youth diversion conference because of his age”.
Defence barrister John Connolly said Barkley had an IQ of 66 and at the time of the offence was self-medicating and smoking cannabis in his bedroom “out of boredom”.
Judge Kerr told Barkley that if his “serious offending” had downed the aircraft there was no doubt it would have “blown up and the impact of that would have caused devastation”. The
judge said that Barkley was in the “bottom one per cent of the population” because of his IQ level, and also had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The judge added that he intended to dispose of the case by way of a two-year probation order to enable Barkley to receive supervision from the Probation Service to deal with his drug problems and to prevent further reoffending.
But Judge Kerr warned Barkley: “If you breach that order I can assure you, you will be brought back before me to be resentenced and you will go straight to prison.”