Judge acquits man found drunk and asleep in car

A BELFAST man discovered drunk and asleep in his car with the engine running was using it as a “place of safety”, a court heard yesterday.

Paul Mcdonald was acquitted of being drunk in charge of the vehicle after saying he had to get out of his house during an alcohol-fuelled row with his son.

The 56-year-old, of Norfolk Road, was also cleared of failing to provide a specimen of breath based on evidence he had a chest complaint at the time.

Police found Mr Mcdonald in the driver’s seat of his Mercedes parked at nearby Bingnian Drive on the morning of January 18 last year. At the time he had been reported as a missing person.

Belfast Magistrates Court was told the keys were in the ignition and the engine running.

In footage from body worn cameras, officers were heard banging on the window and warni ng hi m it would be smashed unless he opened up. Mr Mcdonald was then arrested following repeated attempts to blow into a breathalyser, with police claiming he failed to comply.

Questioned by defence QC Declan Quinn, he said he had spent several hours in the vehicle.

An argument had escalated while drinking at home with his son the night before, he claimed.

“I knew this was going to turn nasty,” Mr Mcdonald said. “I needed to get out of the house for safety, get away from him, sleep in the car and go back the next morning when he’s sober.”

He alleged that in a previous encounter in 2016 he had been beaten unconscious. No prosecution was ever brought, however, after charges were dropped.

Denying he ever intended to drive his car on the day police found him, Mr Mcdonald insisted his job at a hospital brain injury unit made him aware of the potential consequences.

“I pick up the pieces in the aftermath,” he said. “I wasn’t going anywhere... in my line of work there wouldn’t be a chance.”

He also described how he struggled to provide a breath sample due to his chest problems. “They kept saying ‘blow, blow, blow’, but the more I was trying to blow harder, the more it was hurting me,” he said.

Urging Mrs Bagnall to acquit his client, Mr Quinn said: “There is a complete lack of evidence to contradict this man’s case he was in this car for some considerable time. The case he makes that he was sleeping it off, albeit challenged, has not been undermined.”

Clearing Mr Mcdonald, the judge ruled: “I can’t be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt. He has, on the balance of probabilities, raised the statutory defence.”