Derry Courthouse.
A man has appeared in court charged in connection with a hate crime attack in the Rosemount area of Derry at the weekend which resulted in the victim requiring 22 stitches for a facial injury.
Thomas Deane (24), of Argyle Terrace, was charged with a number of offences when he appeared at Derry Magistrates Court.
As well as facing charges of unlawful assault, assault on police, disorderly behaviour and resisting police, he was also accused of having offensive weapons, namely a hammer and a knife.
The offences are alleged to have occurred in the early hours of yesterday morning.
A PSNI officer told the court the alleged offences occurred after a number of residents in the Argyle area were woken by anti social behaviour at around 4.50am.
The officer told the court, when Deane was challenged by a number of residents repeatedly pushed one man and called another, who was black, a “nigger” before punching him in the mouth causing an injury that required 22 stitches.
The court heard the accused had fled the scene before police arrived and when he was eventually apprehended he became abusive and shouted “I’ll eat your f…ing heart and your sister’s heart.”
The officer told the court Deane kicked out and attempted to heatbutt police.
The court heard after the accused dropped a hammer which had been in his tracksuit bottoms, police restrained him and recovered a knife.
The officer told the court Deane denied the offences claiming he had acted in self-defence and had been given the hammer and a knife by an unknown resident who, he claimed, had praised him for assaulting the injured party.
The court heard Deane denied calling the man “a nigger” and would have been more inclined to have call him a “black b……”
Applying for bail, defence solicitor, George Copeland, said the accused’s girlfriend was due to give birth this Wednesday.
However, after hearing Deane a had a relevant criminal record, which included a conviction for assault in which the injured party sustained a cheekbone injury, Resident Magistrate Barney McElholm refused bail.
Referring to the fact Dean’s girlfriend was due to give birth, Mr McElholm said: “She’s due to give birth on Wednesday and he’s out rampaging around Rosemount, hopelessly drunk. She would be better off without him.”
Describing the incident as “extremely serious” and a “hate crime,” Mr McElholm agreed with police fears that Deane would reoffend and possibly interfere with witnesses and remanded him in custody to appear in court again on 22 August next.
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