Three people remanded in custody at Derry court over stab attack on vulnerable man in the city on New Year’s Eve
The Belfast Telegraph reports that three people, including a 16-year-old boy, faced Derry Magistrates’ Court today, Thursday, January 2, charged with offences linked to the stabbing of a man at a block of flats in the city on December 31.
The court heard the stabbing incident was captured on CCTV at a flat complex in Derry where the victim and a number of the defendants lived.
Unemployed 30-year-old Jonathan Desmond Gibson, of Crawford Square, is jointly charged with the teenager of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
They are also jointly charged with possessing a knife with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
It relates to an incident in the Great James Street on Tuesday night.
Also in the dock was 22-year-old Nikita Brogan, who lives in the same block of flats where the incidents allegedly happened.
She is charged with assisting offenders by allegedly using tissues and a spray can to clean up blood at the scene.
A detective constable from Strand Road CID opposed all three being released on bail.
He told District Judge Barney McElholm that the victim also lived in the same block of flats.
The PSNI officer said CCTV footage from the flats complex depicted a total of three attempts to stab the victim in the back, four attempts to stab him in the left leg and three bids to slash him in the face.
As a result of the incident, the victim suffered a stab wound to his back which punctured his lung, one to his left leg and two slashes to his face.
The court heard police were alerted to the scene by an ambulance crew, who treated the victim at the scene before taking him to Altnagelvin Hospital.
When a police response crew arrived they arrested the two males as they attempted to walk away from the flats complex.
They found the victim inside the flat complex sitting in his flat bleeding profusely from stab wounds.
The police witness said CCTV footage showed the defendant Gibson armed with a knife and attacking the victim on three separate occasions.
It also showed the juvenile defendant punching the victim as well as the defendant Brogan cleaning up pools of blood.
The footage also showed the victim holding a hammer throughout the incident.
The investigating detective said the footage showed the defendant Gibson engaging in three stabbing motions as he chased the victim up three flights of stairs. He said Gibson had taken part in three separate frenzied attacks on the victim.
During police interview after his arrest, Gibson said he had acted in self-defence after the victim had threatened all three defendants with the hammer.
The defendant Gibson also identified himself on the CCTV footage.
District Judge McElolm remanded all three in custody.
They will appear back in court on separate dates later this month for a further remand hearing.
Said the judge: “This man Gibson was certainly the prime mover in this incident. He is the person who actually did the stabbing.”
Mr McElholm remarked that he knew the victim to be a vulnerable man.
He said he also knew that the defendant Gibson, who has been diagnosed with mental health issues, had stopped taking his medication before the incident “probably because of something he read on Google posted by some lunatic”.
