Swung a piece of timber at hostel staff

Samuel Robinson, 47, turned on them after they tried to split up a fight with another man at the accommodation on University Street last month.

He was given three months custody after a judge cited his “atrocious” record of more than 300 previous convictions. Robinson pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon in public and two counts of common assault.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard he was involved in an altercation outside the Queens Quarter hostel at Fitzroy Avenue on May 30.

A Crown lawyer said Robinson became highly aggressive when the staff members attempted to separate the pair.

“He picked up a piece of timber, broken from a pallet, and swung it at them, causing them to jump out of the way,” the prosecutor submitted.

Robinson then squared up to one of the complainants, pressing his forehead against the other man’s head.

Defence solicitor Joe Mulholland told the court his client had been attacked first when he went to help a grandmother who was being verbally insulted. “Mr Robinson then defended himself, and when staff came out to break it up he mistakenly thought they were involved in helping the other man,” he said.

“He did lift a piece of wood, but it was to scare them off.”

Imposing three months imprisonment, Deputy District Judge Anne Marshall ruled that the offences passed the custody threshold.

She told Robinson: “You have an absolutely atrocious record of 305 convictions. It’s 32 pages long, and I don’t have time to read it all this morning.”