Man had to get plastic surgery after beating with hurley stick

Prosecutors said the victim had to undergo plastic surgery following the assault at Harley’s Bar in Kilkeel.

Shane Sime, 26, of Mourne Road, Rostrevor, faces charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place over the incident on February 7.

Crown lawyer Natalie Pinkerton claimed CCTV footage showed Sime first striking out at the victim, a man in his 40s, following exchanges in the pub.

She said the defendant then left, returning five minutes later in a car along with two other unidentified men wearing hoods.

Sime retrieved a hurley stick from the vehicle and hit glass on the front door before attacking the injured party, the court was told.

According to Ms Pinkerton the man was knocked to the ground, beaten with the bat and punched and kicked for a number of minutes.

“One of the other two males appears to be recording the incident on a mobile phone while the other appears to be keeping watch at the door,” counsel said.

The victim was taken to hospital with severe lacerations to his lip which could not be stitched.

Instead, Ms Pinkerton disclosed, he underwent plastic surgery and is expected to be left with scarring.

During police interviews Sime was shown CCTV images and accepted it was him in the footage, she added.

He claimed the victim had made remarks to him following a personal tragedy.

Sime also faces separate charges of possessing an offensive weapon, disorderly behaviour and attempted criminal damage to a police vehicle over an alleged incident in a Kilkeel housing estate on April 9.

Defence barrister Kevin Magill set out how his client grew up in care after moving to Northern Ireland from England.

He told the court Sime “reacted entirely inappropriately” in response to derogatory comments in the bar.

“He lost the run of himself, and the description of these events he has accepted,” Mr Magill said.

But refusing bail to Sime, Judge Donna McColgan QC stressed: “These are very, very serious offences.”