Jailed for pushing man into a canal

A HEROIN dealer who took umbrage at a man he saw urinating into a canal pushed him head-first into the freezing water, a court has heard.

Hamdan Ariffin, 33, from Galway, ‘forcefully’ pushed the 37-year-old stranger into the canal at Bruach na Coiribe, Galway, at 3.10am on December 30 last, Galway District Court heard.

Ariffin pleaded guilty to assaulting the man, to causing criminal damage to his glasses and to breaching the peace. Defence solicitor Brian Gilmartin said his client’s reply when charged (‘I pushed him because he was p***ing in the river’) explained his state of mind at the time.

He said Ariffin was a drug addict and was serving a seven-month sentence for dealing. Judge Mary Fahy sentenced Ariffin to five months in jail for the assault and a consecutive fourmonth sentence for the loss of the victim’s glasses, which she suspended for two years.