A 23-YEAR-OLD man who subjected a bus driver to a “terrifying” assault has been handed a two-year probation order.

Connor Oliver Floyd, of no fixed abode, appeared via videolink from Maghaberry Prison at Enniskillen Magistrates Court for sentencing concerning an incident on December 22 last.

At 6.05pm, an emergency call was received from a Translink bus driver in Trillick, who said he had been assaulted by a passenger.

The injured party had been driving from Enniskillen to Omagh with three passengers on board.

The defendant first approached him at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) and asked if his girlfriend had got off the bus, and was told he had got on the bus alone.

Floyd approached the driver several other times, including to ask to go to the toilet, and was asked to wait until they reached Ballinamallard.

When the bus was heading to Kilskeery, the injured party noticed Floyd standing up and pulling his tracksuit bottoms down.

As the bus was approaching Trillick, Floyd started smashing his fists against the screen partition.

He had his face covered and hood pulled up, and the bus driver said it frightened him, and he never had to deal with anything like it in his 34-year career.

Floyd grabbed the bus driver’s clothing round the throat but let go quickly before headbutting the windscreen.

The injured party said he was terrified and couldn’t think straight, and he was advised to shut the door of the bus and drive away from the defendant when possible.

When police arrived, they spoke to Floyd and observed he was under the influence, and was aggressive and volatile.

In custody, he got away from police and ran through the custody suite, while he also banged his head of the cell wall, resulting in three staples.

Floyd’s barrister, Brian O’Sullivan, told the court there was nothing he could say about the “outrageous” incident which took place on a person doing their job.

Mr. O’Sullivan said Floyd had apologised during the police interview, and asked the court to allow him to redeem himself as he was willing to engage with Probation.

District Judge Steven Keown told Floyd that the easiest thing the court could do was to impose another prison sentence on him.

He said that the court would be entitled to give consecutive sentences for the charges, and while Floyd had been in prison for eight weeks, he would not be getting out on time served.

Convicting Floyd of common assault and attempted criminal damage, but taking into account the pre-sentence report and early pleas, Judge Keown ordered Floyd to complete a two-year probation order so he could try and break the pattern of offending.

Floyd was also convicted of three further charges of criminal damage to G4S monitoring tags on January 1, February 12 and February 28, and ordered to pay £460 compensation.