Sex offender '˜broke into ex-partner's bedroom and bit her face'

Prosecutors said a police armed response unit had to be deployed to the house in Lisburn amid claims Blake Edward Finan was also cutting his arm with a steak knife.

Refusing the 29-year-old’s application for bail pending an appeal against the jail term imposed for the latest offences, a judge described his actions as “terrifying”.

Finan, of Chapel Hill Mews in the city, faced charges of common assault, theft, and breach of a non-molestation order.

His ex-partner woke at around 2am on August 23 last year to discover him standing at the bottom of her bed, the court was told.

Conor Maguire, prosecuting, said Finan had got in through an unlocked back door in the Lisburn property.

He claimed the defendant kept trying to hug the woman after she ran downstairs, taking her phone when she went to call 999.

As she tried to get him out of the house he grabbed a knife and started to cut his arm.

Mr Maguire added that Finan also bit her on the face before exiting and stealing a bicycle to leave the scene.

The incident happened just three days after he had been handed suspended prison sentences for public order offences and failing to register as a sex offender with the police.

Finan has eight previous convictions for indecent assault, the court heard.

He was seeking bail pending a planned appeal against a newly imposed total sentence of 10 months in jail.

But Mr Justice Treacy stressed that the new offences were committed within days of receiving a suspended term.

“He’s then engaged in what must have been quite a terrifying incident for this lady,” the judge said.

“This woman didn’t know what was coming her way that night, (it was) quite bizarre behaviour and I’m not prepared to release him.”