A Derry man has been handed a five-month prison sentence for assaulting his partner and damaging her property.

Patrick O’Hara, 23, of Creggan Heights, who is already serving a prison sentence in relation to other matters pleaded guilty to charges of common assault and criminal damage on July 4 of this year.

The court heard a verbal altercation took place between the defendant and his partner.

She then came downstairs to discover that O’Hara had damaged a table and chairs.

A Public Prosecutor said the 23-year-old proceeded to slap his partner on the face, causing her to slap him back in self-defence.

It is understood the defendant then kicked a hole in the living room wall, and was arrested ‘following a chase by police’.

Defence barrister Stephen Mooney said the offence took place in a domestic setting and accepted that ‘any man raising his hand to a woman can expect immediate custody’.

However, he made it clear that in this instance there was ‘no further attack’ and the victim ‘ended up giving him as good as he deserved after’.

Mr Mooney said his client has committed a ‘litany of other crimes’, but this was his first domestic incident.

The court was told that O’Hara was in breach of a suspended sentence for common assault.

The defence barrister said it would have been ‘highly unlikely’ for this case to have ended in prosecution as the injured party did not wish to pursue it, but his client admitted the charges and is ‘not blind to his wrongdoing’.

O’Hara wanted the case dealt with and is anxious to get out of prison ‘as soon as possible’, he added.

District Judge Barney McElholm imposed three months of the defendant’s suspended sentence and added a further two months to run consecutively.

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