A man who hit a 74-year-old man, knocking him to the ground, has been handed a six-month prison sentence.

At around 11.20am on January 7, police received a report from the pensioner’s neighbour, who had found him lying on the ground.

The injured party told police a male – Jordan Beckett (19), of Coolcullen Meadow, Enniskillen – and a female were looking into his vehicle when he approached them and asked what they were at.

He said the male responded but he could not understand Beckett because he “was going mad”.

At this point, the injured party, who had a crutch, put it across his body to protect himself but Beckett, who was appearing from Hydebank Prison via videolink, punched him on the jaw, knocking him to the ground.

The victim gave a description of the male and Beckett was arrested a short time later on the Cornagrade Road.

After his arrest Beckett made a significant statement, saying: “Elderly gentleman, aye. Coming out of his house acting like a b*****ks.”

Beckett was not fit for interview until the following day, and said he was checking his reflection in the car window and hit the man in self defence.

When he was charged, he replied with a number of obscenities.

Beckett’s barrister, Ciaran Roddy, said it was inevitable the outcome of this would be a period in prison.

He said this “appalling incident” was behaviour symptomatic with Beckett being unable to deal with adversity without resorting to violence.

One positive he pointed out was there was no injury to the 74-year-old victim.

Mr. Roddy said there was a “ring of truth” to Beckett’s account of what he was doing at the car. He said Beckett had “inherent needs that require addressing”, and “violence on a whim which needs challenged”.

He pointed to Beckett’s difficult upbringing and how he used substance abuse as a coping mechanism.

A probation order, Mr. Roddy continued, which Beckett has to complete to equip him with means of dealing with adversity, had not manifested in abating his offending, although he added the road to redemption is not without setbacks.

Mr. Roddy concluded that Beckett had effectively confessed to the matter, which meant there was no need to have an identification process, and asked the court to take this into account, alongside the probation order which would be there for him when he got out of prison.

However, Deputy District Judge Trevor Browne said the behaviour “really speaks for itself”, and out of the accounts given by Beckett and the injured party, he had no doubt in believing the injured party.

He said Beckett’s offending shows that the prospects of him responding to probation is going in the opposite direction.

Judge Browne said the case and behaviour was so bad, he sentenced Beckett to six months in prison, and activated a suspended sentence, adding another two months to the prison sentence.