Vodka thief a ‘plague on the business community’: Judge

District Judge Eamonn King made the comments while sentencing 38-year-old Christopher McGrath to eight months for a number of offences, namely theft, burglary, resisting police and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

A defence solicitor said that the charges were a "very fundamental departure" for McGrath, of Cowan Street in the city.

"Christopher generally comes before Your Worship on matters of being a nuscience and I don't try to minimise from the accumulative effect on retailers," said the solicitor.

In relation to the charges of burglary, resisting police and assault occasioning actual bodily harm which took place on July 18, the solicitor said that the injured party was McGrath's next door neighbour.

"There's no adverse history," he added. "They are fellow travellers albeit this man is much better behaved than [McGrath] is and doesn't tend to end up here before Your Worship and Your Worship knows what I mean that.

"What he did on this occasion was go into his house uninvited, or certainly a licence to do so was very clearly and unequivicallyy withdrawn, and he's taken the bottle of vodka from this person's house, ergo burglary, and that's why it would be taken outside the ordinary parameters.

"There is unfortunately on this location an altercation between the two and Christopher pushes him.

INTENTION

"Your Worship lectures day in and day out in this court about one punch, how it could be nobody's intention that anything untoward would happened, but unfortunately the reality is that circumstance is dependant upon any given situation and this is what's happened here.

"He pushes... he falls onto a hard surface and therefore, it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant what is intentions are?"It's no coincidence when you look at the number of times Your Worship has had to deal with him and there's been nothing approaching or like this."

A photograph of the injuries sustained by the injured party was described as "unsavoury".

"He now has to take responsibility for that and he does," added the solicitor.

With regards to the theft charge, which took place at Supervalu on Hill Street in the city on July 13, the solicitor said there had been "a guilty plea from the outset" of the case.

"That is more in liking with the modus operandi," he said."He has been in custody in relation to these matters for some four months which would be the equivilant of an eight month sentence and he appreciates that the serious matter probably will lead Your Worship to have to take a path.

"That is a substantial time for someone who has met the charges in the manner in which he has."

DJ King described McGrath as someone "who regularly appears in this court, usually in relation to offenses of theft to feed an addiction which he had battled to overcome.

"I could write a character reference for Christopher, I've known him for that long. I recognise the struggles he has in relation to addiction and the difficulties he has in actually trying to function in normal society.

"The consequence of that is he is a plague on the business community and the community at large in Newry because of his actions to feed his habit.”