Honeymooner from US denies attempted murder of three men

AN AMERICAN man who arrived in Ireland last week with his wife for their honeymoon has been charged with the attempted murder of three men.

Nicholas Keith Warner (31), an electrical engineer from Morrow Lane, in Summerville, South Carolina, appeared at Limavady Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with an attack on three men, two of them aged in their 30s and one aged in his 60s.

The three each sustained stabbing injuries in an incident outside a bar on Main Street in the Co Antrim village of Ballycarry on Saturday night.

The American honeymoon couple had arrived in Dublin before travelling to Northern Ireland.

Mr Warner denied attempting to murder the three men and also denied assaulting a fourth man. He further denied causing affray, but he admitted possessing a knife.

The defendant (inset), who sustained a broken leg in the incident, was helped by two police officers as he walked on crutches from a cell van on Main Street, Limavady, into the courthouse for his remand appearance. His wife Kaylee (inset), who is a nurse and also from South Carolina, was seated behind her husband as he sat in the dock. A detective constable told Deputy District Judge Ted Magill he believed he would be able to connect the defendant to the charges. He said alcohol had been an issue in the incident. Defence solicitor David Jones told the court that conditions proposed by the police and by the Public Prosecution Service were acceptable to the defendant. “He accepts he was the individual who caused the injuries. From the moment of his arrest prior to his interviews, he accepted he possessed the knife to defend himself. This case will come down to the argument of reasonable force or otherwise.”

The defendant was released on his own bail of £1,000 (€1,120) to appear at Ballymena Magistrate’s Court on September 6. As part of his agreed bail conditions, Mr Warner was ordered to hand over his passport to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), to observe an 8pm-11am curfew and to reside only at a bail address approved by the PSNI.

The defendant, who will also be electronically tagged, was ordered not to leave Northern Ireland and not to contact any of the injured parties nor any other witnesses in the case.

He was also ordered to maintain a ban from both possessing and consuming alcohol, and must agree to carry out a preliminary breath test if asked to do so by police. An additional bail condition was the defendant must not enter within the 30mph zone around Ballycarry.