Police cordoned off the scene in Railway Street, Strabane after a woman was attacked with a drill at the weekend
A TEENAGER has faced a court accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a woman was attacked with a cordless drill in Strabane at the weekend.
The 17-year-old boy spoke only to confirm his name. He cannot be named as he is under 18.
The incident happened in Railway Street in Strabane in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Omagh Magistrates Court was told it is being treated as a hate crime.
A detective constable told the court a police patrol had been flagged down in Railway Street,
They found Brenda McLaughlin injured with blood coming from her head and lapsing in and out of consciousness.
She was also having fits and seizures.
Ms McLaughlin told police she believed she had been attacked because of her sexuality.
The court heard the injury to her head has not been confirmed as being caused by either blunt force or a drill bit.
She told police she had heard the noise of a drill and then her head was twisted, as she described it.
The injury is described as some form of hole in the skull, which does not appear to be deep, but was initially thought to be life-threatening.
The drill was recovered but no drill bit was found in it.
CCTV footage from a nightclub and the street outside show the teenager in “high spirits”, playing with the drill and pointing it at friends like a gun, the detective constable said.
The court heard the teenager, when interviewed, had no recollection of how he came to be in possession of a drill.
He had been very drunk and said he had been drinking from three or four o’clock in the afternoon.
A solicitor for the teenager said he had a “scant” previous record.
The detective constable said it was necessary to remand the teenager for his and the public’s protection, given the press attention the incident had garnered locally, nationally and further afield, although he acknowledged there was no intelligence a threat actually existed.
District Judge Peter King said it was a “grossly violent, inexplicably violent incident” with what was initially thought to be life-threatening injuries.
He said the public protection element was sufficient to remand the teenager in custody.
He will appear again by videolink in Strabane Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 18.
The teenager cried and hugged relatives before being taken out of the court.
He was remanded to Hydebank Wood Young Offenders’ Centre in south Belfast.
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