Man wearing oodie with bunny ears who caused £11,000 of damage to 66 vehicles is given suspended prison sentence

Dillon Fullerton (23), formerly with a Ballymena address but now given as Station Road in Castledawson, was at Ballymena Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He pleaded guilty to 66 charges of criminal damage and one charge of attempting to damage a vehicle.

The offences happened on February 13 this year. At the time social media images showed the defendant wearing an 'oodie with bunny ears'.

Vehicles were damaged in the Dans Road/Tullygarley area of of Ballymena including Grange Road and The Rosses.

He had spent a number of months in custody on remand but recently has been on bail.

A police officer told an earlier court that on February 13 around 4.30am police received a report of a male damaging a vehicle at Grange Road.

Several further reports were received of damage being caused to vehicles - window wipers being pulled off and damage to paintwork, bodywork and windows.

Police were in the area at Rosses Lane and spotted a male attempting to pull window wipers from a vehicle and he was arrested.

Police received numerous reports from residents in the area that a male "with the same MO (modus operandi) had damaged their vehicles during the night".

The officer said Fullerton gave nonsensical answers - he admitted to "taking some wipers off cars and when asked to elaborate he stated he did this 'because they were drugs and he needed drugs'."

Thursday's Court was told the estimated cost of damage was £11,000.

A defence barrister said the ‘bizarre’ offending was caused after the defendant had downed "copious amounts of alcohol".

He said the defendant had no memory of the incidents and had issues with "psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia".

When police arrived the defendant "felt somebody was chasing after him".

District Judge Nigel Broderick said the level of damage was "staggering" and said it was possibly one of the most serious cases of criminal damages he had recently dealt with.

He said the estimated cost of damage was £11,000 but that may be conservative as some vehicle owners may not have passed on details of damage to police.

The judge said Fullerton had served the equivalent of a five months prison term on remand and if he was jailed again he would be released without supervision.

He handed down a one year sentence suspended for three years and told the defendant he hoped that would act as a deterrent and prevent him from re-offending.

Judge Broderick said the defendant was not in a position to make compensation so the legislation and the case law instructs any court there must be an assessment of the defendant's means.

The judge said as Fullerton is unemployed he would not be in a position to make any restitution.