Teenager appears in court charged with spreading of slurry on gay Pride parade route in Ballymena - it was a prank, he says
A north Antrim teenager spread gallons of hen manure on a road before Ballymena’s first Pride parade as part “of a prank,” a court heard today.
Coleraine Magistrates’ Court also heard that 19-year-old Isaac Adams “made full and frank admissions” to police when he was arrested.
As defence solicitor Stewart Ballentine put it, Adams was “literally caught in he headlights of the police vehicle” when committing the offence.
Adams, from the Lislaban Road in Cloughmills, confirmed his identity and that he understood the three charges against him, all alleged to have been committed on June 28.
Adams was charged with causing criminal damage to Granville Drive in Ballymena, causing manure to be deposited on the road and possessing a bladed article, namely a lock knife.
According to a police statement at the time, Adams was arrested in the early hours following reports of slurry being spread on the road at around 2.55am.
“The matter is being treated as a hate crime,” said the police statement.
While Adams was charged to court yesterday, a 20-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the incident was released on police bail and is due to appear in court in November.
During Adams’ brief court appearance, a police officer outlined how police on patrol happened upon a male, wearing a balaclava and carrying “two empty 25-litre jugs”.
“He admitted that he had been spreading the manure over the roads to disrupt the Pride parade,” the officer told the court, adding that the lock knife was found in his pocket when Adams was searched.
Adams, the court heard, “freely admitted” that he intended to disrupt the Pride parade due to be held later that day and during formal police interviews, the teenager told police “he was not the only person involved”.
The farmer told police he had filled four or five, five-gallon jugs with “hen litter waste” from his family farm “and described it as a prank”.
The officer conceded that Adams has no criminal record.
District Judge Peter King heard the clean-up operation cost £788.
Under cross examination from Mr Ballentine, the officer agreed that Adams “co-operated fully with the police” and also that he told them he had the knife as part of his work.
Submitting that Adams “comes from good stock” in north Antrim and that the incident “is very much out of character,” Mr Ballentine said that having spent the weekend in a police cell Adams “has learnt a very salutary lesson”.
He argued that Adams could be granted bail and Judge King agreed.
Freeing Adams on his own bail of £500 and adjourning the case to July 24, the judge imposed several conditions including a curfew, barred Adams from entering Ballymena and from contacting his co-accused.
He also ordered that Adams can only have a mobile phone which cannot access the internet and he has to pass on the details of any phone to the police.