Suspended sentence for Derry man who called police ‘scumbags’

A man has appeared at Derry Magistrate's Court charged with disorderly behaviour and resisting police.

Lee Doherty (34) of no fixed abode in Derry was arrested on April 17 after police stopped to check on the safety of a man Doherty was seen to be pointing his finger at while stomping on the footpath.

When police arrived it appeared that Doherty was under the influence of drugs as he was behaving erratically, shouting and swearing and spitting on the ground.

After finding nothing, police told him that he was free to go and he began to shout again, calling the police 'scumbags'.

He was subsequently arrested for disorderly behavior and attempted to resist police when they tried to put him in the back of their vehicle, eventually having to be restrained.

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Defence barrister Dean Mooney said that Doherty has a 'bad record' but that police were not responding to a call. They had simply stopped to search for drugs.

He added that there were no injuries as a result of the incident and there was nothing of a violent nature, calling the incident 'very much at the low end' for the offences.

District Judge Oonagh Mullan noted Doherty's extensive record for offences of a similar nature, including 36 assaults on police, sentencing him to four months in custody, suspended for twelve months and ordering him to pay a fine of £100.