Woman grabbed daughter’s boyfriend by testicles and hit him with hammer and bottle

Marie Ann Kelly (43), of Brucevale Park in north Belfast, had pleaded guilty to a charge of causing the man grievous bodily harm.

Prosecution lawyer Philip Henry told Belfast Crown Court that in February 2016 police attended a house in the Cliftonville Road area after “receiving a report of a disturbance’’.

He said police noticed a man coming down the drive who was “stumbling, badly injured, bleeding from his face and head’’ and called him an ambulance.

Police established the victim was at the time in a relationship with the defendant’s daughter.

Mr Henry said police entered the house and spoke to the defendant about the attack who said she had “grabbed him by the testicles and hit him with a hammer and a glass bottle’’.

PSNI officers seized the hammer along with a broken glass bottle for examination.

At police interview, he added, Kelly had made the case that she was “defending her daughter’’ following an incident at the house.

The prosecutor said the victim was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital and was found to have fractures to both sides of his nose and needed 50 stitches to head and facial injuries.

The defendant had previous convictions for violence, including two assaults on police and one for disorderly behaviour in Belfast city centre.

Mr Henry said the aggravating factors were that two weapons were used, the victim was struck on the head and the presence of alcohol.

Defence barrister Declan Quinn said Kelly has “expressed her deep remorse for her behaviour and she feels really terrible about the injuries she caused’’ to the victim.

In a medical report, she told a doctor that at the time of the attack “everything was bubbling up in my mind and blew it.”

Mr Quinn added: “This was a family celebration which turned sour in the course of drink.’’

Judge Finnegan said he accepted Kelly’s remorse over the incident as “genuine’’, saying it was clear she had “lost control’’ and there “might have been some provocation’’.

As Kelly sobbed in the dock, the judge said he was imposing a combination order of 90 hours community service “for the benefit of the public’’ along with a year on probation.

But Judge Finnegan warned the mother-of-three that if she re-offended “you will be going into custody”.