Courts have to enforce bail conditions to retain their integrity - Derry judge says

A judge at Derry Magistrates' Court said that if the courts are to retain their integrity they have to enforce bail conditions. 

District Judge Barney McElholm was speaking as he remanded a woman in custody for breaching her bail conditions. 

Courtney Temple (20) of Jefferson Court in Derry is currently on bail for an assault charge.

A police officer told the court that Temple had been found in the company of street drinkers, clearly intoxicated and with alcohol on her.

She refused to give police a preliminary breath test and when arrested told police 'of course I have been drinking I am an alcoholic'. 

The officer said that Temple had breached bail on December with a reading of 107mgs.

He said this would be the defendant's fifth breach of bail to come before the court. 

He opposed bail due to the risk of reoffending and risk of breaching bail. 

Defence counsel Sinead Rogan said her client had not reoffended since December. 

She said that Temple was an alcoholic as she had claimed. 

Judge McElholm said Temple had painted the court into a corner and wondered what he could do. 

He said he could 'turn a blind eye' and ignore the drinking and this would inevitably lead to further offending or he could revoke her bail. 

The judge said the courts had to enforce bail conditions and so he remanded Temple in custody to appear again on February 14.