North Belfast man Jonathan Beggs, 34, jailed for four months after trying to attack man with hammer and wrapping his naked girlfriend in stolen bedroom curtain
A hammer-wielding thug wrapped his naked girlfriend in curtains stolen from his girlfriend and left her in the front garden, a court has heard.
The woman was found in the front garden of a property in North Belfast after Jonathan Beggs was reported to police for trying to attack someone with two hammers. Officers were called to Cultra Street in the city, where Beggs, 34, had stolen his neighbour’s bedroom curtains and wrapped his now ex-partner in them before she was found in his front garden last month. Beggs pleaded guilty to charges of criminal damage, attempted criminal damage, common assault, possessing and offensive weapon and theft.
He was jailed for four months at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Friday for the offences. Prosecution told the court how at around 5.30 pm on Friday, June 13, police were tasked to Cultra Street after a neighbour of the defendant said he had heard a “loud smashing” noise.
He said he had observed Beggs outside his ground floor bedroom window “holding two hammers”. The prosecutor added: “He was shouting accusations that the neighbour and another resident in the property had had sex with his partner.
“The injured party noticed his window was smashed and observed the defendant pull the bedroom curtains from the pole and take them. The complainant and another male went outside and saw the defendant coming towards them swinging both hammers.
“The injured party, fearing immediate violence, closed the front gate of the property. The defendant started to hit the gate with the hammer but caused no damage.”
The complainant then asked Beggs to put the hammers away, but he ignored this request and leant over the gate and tried to strike him with the hammers, BelfastLive reports. Two hammers were recovered from the address and police found a naked female in the front garden of his property wrapped in curtains.
Mitigating, Beggs’s defence solicitor said the Probation Board’s view was that a probation order would be of no use to the defendant, before adding: “Frankly, this incident was entirely driven by addiction issues. I think he now accepts that his former girlfriend had tried to wind him up, for want of a better word, about these allegations. She was the naked female in the curtain which relates to theft of him pulling down the window pole from these men’s property.”
He added that Beggs has long standing mental health issues and in relation to that he receives an injection into his spine once a month. The solicitor said the defendant was willing to engage with the Probation Board but it was of the view he would end up being breached for not complying with the terms of the order.
He added: “It was mainly threatening behaviour on his part and no one was actually struck.” While District Judge George Connor said: “I understand where probation are coming from and I will impose a sentence of four months.”
