Attempted murder accused refused bail change to attend music festival

Remy Lafferty is accused of using an umbrella shaft to stab a man in the neck in a drunken attack outside a bar in Portstewart.

The 37-year-old wanted his bail conditions relaxed so he could travel to the annual Creamfields event in Daresbury, Cheshire this weekend.

Lafferty was also seeking to have an alcohol ban temporarily suspended so he could take drink during the gigs.

But dismissing the application, Mr Justicer Treacy said: “I’m not prepared to let him attend a music festival where inevitably there will be irresistible and unpoliceable temptations.”

Lafferty, of Glentaisie Park in Portrush, was allegedly involved in a violent altercation after being evicted from the bar in March this year.

Prosecution counsel said one man was discovered bleeding profusely after apparently being attacked with the shaft of an umbrella.

He sustained lacerations to his neck and was kept unconscious in hospital by artificial means for five days, the court heard.

Lafferty also sustained injuries but was said to have little recollection of the incident due to his level of drunkenness.

He denied ever seeing or holding the umbrella shaft.

Lafferty was previously granted bail, with conditions including a prohibition on alcohol.

Seeking the green light for his client to attend the Creamfields dance festival, defence counsel Richard McConkey accepted it had been “ill advised” to also ask for the drinking ban to be lifted.

Mr McConkey stressed tickets were booked before the alleged incident outside the bar, at a cost of several hundred pounds.

Denying both parts of the bid to vary bail terms, the judge added: “He had plenty of time to sell the tickets in the meantime.”