Man avoids jail after he threw petrol bomb at PSNI

A 36-YEAR-OLD man who was drunk when he threw a petrol bomb at police officers on the city walls — when there was no public order incidents going on at the time — was yesterday given a suspended jail sentence.

Nathan Doherty from Harding Street, who admitted throwing, possessing and making a petrol bomb on August 16 last year, had no previous criminal convictions.

After he was arrested he described his actions as stupid.

He said he was relieved that none of the police officers had been injured as a result of his actions.

Doherty, who lost his job with a mobile network operator company because of his offending, had spent the day drinking at home and in two local bars.

He then went to an anti-internment bonfire where a group of people had previously been seen throwing petrol bombs at the police.

“You offered to help out and you poured petrol into glass bottles,” Judge Elizabeth McCaffrey told Doherty at the Crown Court in Derry. “You then walked up to the city walls and threw a petrol bomb at police officers,” she added.

Judge McCaffrey said Doherty, who was extremely drunk at the time, had expressed deep remorse following his arrest.

“You told a probation officer that if anybody had been injured that night as a result of your actions, you would never have forgiven yourself, and that you do not have a discriminatory attitude towards the police,” she said. “I accept it was an isolated incident and you accept it was an extremely stupid thing to do.”