Jailed for five months after 'marriage proposal'

Chris Donegan • Published 27 Feb 2012 15:11

A long-standing member of the Irish National Foresters has been jailed for five months after he asked a woman to marry him.

Joseph Martin Sloan proposed over the telephone.

His intended bride also made a phone call - to the police - to complain that her 61-year-old former boyfriend was molesting her.

Sloan appeared at Fermanagh Magistrate's Court and admitted that on November 12, last year, he breached a Non-Molestation Order by making the call.

The Order was made under the Family Homes and Domestic Violence Order.

He also admitted that a couple of months earlier, on September 7, he breached the Order at Carnmore Rise in Enniskillen and made a phone call that was "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

Sloan was released on bail pending an appeal against the prison sentence.

A prosecutor told the court that on September 7, last year, Sloan's former partner rang police to say she had received an abusive call from him at her home at Carnmore Rise in Enniskillen. He told her: "F--k off Jules". He also told her: "Go f--k yourself."

The prosecutor said Sloan, from Castle Street, Omagh, was arrested and denied knowledge of the call. His phone was examined and on it was a call of almost 30 minutes to his former girlfriend's number. Sloan told police he didn't remember making it.

The court heard that a couple of months later, on November 12, Sloan again breached the Non-Molestation Order by calling his former girlfriend and asking her to marry him.

Defence solicitor, Mr. Michael Fahy, said the couple had been in a fairly lengthy relationship, which had been broken up by her. It was clear alcohol had become a very large difficulty in Sloan's life. Every entry on his criminal record was alcohol related. It was a problem he was keen to address. He had previously stayed off drink for three years.

"Alcohol is the only reason he is here today and staring prison in the face," said Mr. Fahy.

District Judge Liam McNally said Sloan had appeared before him at Strabane Magistrate's Court on September 1, last year, and been warned that if he committed another offence he would be sent to prison.

"You didn't even wait a week before you ignored that, and two months later breached it again," he told Sloan.

"You leave me with no alternative," he added, jailing Sloan for three months and activating a two-month suspended sentence imposed at a previous court for another offence, for a total of five months' imprisonment.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 28 Feb 12

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