Attack in chip shop was ‘like something from the Wild West’

Coleraine Magistrate’s Court heard the trio claimed they were passing through Mosside on the way home from the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle last August when they spotted a man in a chip shop.

The man took refuge behind the counter to get away from the men and “armed himself with a knife”, the court was told.

The door of the chip shop was able to be closed and a window was broken during the trouble, a prosecutor said.

Todd Andrew Newton (24), of Westbourne Crescent, Coleraine; Rauri Doey (21), also of Westbourne Crescent and Jason Trevor Devenny (29) of Harkness Gardens in Derry/Londonderry, were all in court for sentencing on a charge of disorderly behaviour.

Doey was also being sentenced for causing criminal damage to a door.

The court heard Newton had previously been charged with possessing a baseball bat as an offensive weapon in a public place in relation to the Mosside incident but that charge had been withdrawn.

On August 28 of last year the trio left Mosside in a Skoda car which was later detected by police with five males onboard in the Coleraine area.

The prosecution lawyer said one of the trio in court told police that on the day in question they had been going through Mosside when they noticed the injured party, who they accused of making comments on Facebook.

Defence solicitor Garrett Greene said that, on the way home from Ballycastle, the men encountered a male who, it was alleged, had made “disparaging comments on social media referring to a friend of theirs who had died in tragic circumstances”.

Jailing the men, District Judge Liam McNally said they were serious offences.

He told the defendants: “Really it was like something out of the Wild West when you stop your car and the three of you pursue an attack on a chip shop in which the person you wanted to get your hands on is in.”

Along with a sentence for the Mosside incident, suspended sentences were activated meaning Devenny was jailed for eight months and Doey for seven months.

Newton was given a three months sentence for his role in the Mosside disturbance.