Former soldier who jumped barrier and trespassed at PSNI facility in Antrim armed with a knife was lucky not to have been shot

Richard Maurice Millar (44), of Rathglynn in Antrim, pleaded guilty to having a knife 'without good reason or lawful authority' at Station Road in Antrim town on June 11 this year.

He also admitted entering as a trespasser the Steeple PSNI complex at Steeple Road on June 11.

On Thursday at Ballymena Magistrates' Court a prosecutor said at 3.49am on June 11 police received a report from a cold storage business at Steeple Industrial Estate of a male on their locked premises.

He appeared disorientated and was "aimlessly running around" the business grounds.

Police could not locate him at the firm and then received a report from the Steeple PSNI complex and a "large knife" was located.

CCTV showed the defendant approaching the barrier of the PSNI complex "with a large knife in his hand".

He jumped over the barrier "holding the knife before aimlessly wandering around and running around the complex".

The defendant had dropped his wallet at the previous premises, the court was told.

The defendant told police he had ran out of his mother's home with a kitchen knife as he had "poor mental health" and had gone to the PSNI complex because he knew "Traffic Branch" were based there and he was "looking for the police to go to a place of safety".

A defence barrister provided the court with a letter from a counsellor who has been assisting the defendant.

The lawyer said Millar had been in the armed forces and had witnessed a number of incidents whilst on tours of duty in Afghanistan.

He added: "It is quite clear that that has troubled him significantly. His mental health had become very poor".

On the night in question, the barrister said the defendant had bought and taken drugs "that had a knock-on effect on his mental health, exacerbating paranoia. He honestly believed that there was something, as it were, 'out there'."

District Judge Nigel Broderick said: "He is lucky he was not engaged in a more forceful manner by an officer with a firearm. Anyone that comes into a police complex in the early hours of the morning armed with a knife and jumps over a barrier could reasonably be seen as a threat".

The lawyer accepted the defendant was "very lucky " that nobody "drew a gun on him or that he was shot".

The judge said a pre-sentence report showed the defendant entered the complex as he "wanted some help" because of his mental health.

Judge Broderick told the defendant: "The facts that surround this are somewhat bizarre. You are somewhat fortunate not to have been engaged forcefully by a police officer because you have entered a police complex armed with a large knife and climbed over a barrier in the early hours of the morning.

"I think any reasonable observer of that could see that as some form of threat or attack. There doesn't appear to have been any ulterior motive bar that you were undergoing some form of mental health breakdown, no doubt not helped by the ingestion of alcohol and drugs".

In light of the "underlying issues" the judge said he would put the defendant on Probation for a year.