A MAN who went to a house and assaulted another man with a metal pipe has been given an eight-month prison sentence.

Richard Aidan Slattery (33), of McCrea Park, Fintona, appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court via videolink from Maghaberry Prison on Monday where he was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault concerning an incident on August 21 last.

The court heard on the day in question police were called about people who had come to a house in the Letterbreen area looking for money for cocaine.

As police were driving to the property, they stopped three people on the laneway. They ascertained who they were before proceeding to the property, with the three described as “stumbling” over the road.

Cut on head

At the house, police spoke with the injured party, who was shirtless and had a cut on the top of their head.

He told police the three people had arrived at the house and he had dealt with one of them before over the sale of a TV.

He said he did not know the initial reason they were at the house, and they pushed past him to gain entry.

Once inside, they started to throw items in his directions, putting him in fear.

The defendant then hit him over the head with the metal pipe, resulting in the cut, for which he had to attend Accident and Emergency for treatment.

When Slattery was interviewed, he said he was at an address with his co-accused and had not left the house.

However, when police put it to him that he had been stopped on the road, he changed his story, saying he was at the address but denied anything happened.

Weapon

Ciaran Roddy, the barrister for the defendant, told the court: “The quite clear aggravating feature is the use of the weapon in the assault at the injured party’s home late at night, where he should have felt safe and secure.”

Mr. Roddy said the injury was not the most serious, through good fortune, and there was also a lack of premediation in the incident.

He continued, saying Slattery was not the instigator and that he bears no ill will towards the injured party, and has no intention of coming into contact with him again.

District Judge Steven Keown sentenced Slattery to eight months in prison, and ordered him to pay the victim £250 in compensation.