Ballymena GBH accused with 74 convictions 'wrecked flat after coming down from drugs' court is told

Sam McDowell, with an address listed on a charge sheet as Moat Road in Ballymena, is alleged to have committed offences on Monday May 25 this year.

He appeared at Ballymena Magistrates' Court today via video link from prison.

He was further remanded in custody and the bail application was further adjourned to June 9.

Objecting to bail at an earlier court, a police officer said that at 5am a man said windows were broken at a flat at Dunclug Park in Ballymena.

Police found a man asleep in the flat.

There was blood on a sofa where he was lying.

The man told police the accused had beaten him around the face and head with "hammer fists" and "cut his arm with glass".

The man had bruising to his face and head and he had a "deep laceration to his right arm".

Police observed several broken windows which appeared to have been broken from the inside.

The man said the accused had used a piece of broken glass to cut him.

Police could see what appeared to be blood on a piece of glass.

The man said he and McDowell had an argument "about money".

When interviewed, the defendant said he had taken cocaine on the Saturday and had been drinking in the flat on the Sunday.

He said he was "not in good form after coming down from drugs" and and he then recalled "wrecking" the flat.

The officer said the flat was in the defendant' name.

The defendant said the other man told him to stop damaging the flat, and he had then packed a bag and had gone to a shop and then got a lift to his mum's home at Moat Road.

The officer said the defendant denied causing injuries to the man.

McDowell denied there had been an argument.

He said the man had not been injured when he left the flat.

The defendant has 74 previous convictions.

A defence barrister said McDowell denies assault.