Court hears man was punched in face at Turkish barber's shop in Antrim

Clint Millar (41), with an address listed on a charge sheet as Rathglynn in Antrim town, admitted assault and attempted criminal damage to a door at the business in Antrim on Saturday, November 25 last year.

A charge of being disorderly was withdrawn by prosecutors.

The defendant was at Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, for sentencing.

A prosecutor said police received a report of a male being assaulted at a Turkish barber shop at High Street in Antrim around 3.30pm on November 25.

The court heard the injured party said a male entered the barber shop and began to shout and swear and act aggressively.

Efforts were made to get the defendant to leave but he was "aggressive and threw a drink over" the injured party before trying to strike him a number of times.

"Two other males tried to intervene and remove the defendant, however, whilst doing this the defendant managed to punch the injured party a number of times, twice to the face, resulting in soreness and redness", the prosecutor said.

They managed to get the defendant outside and closed the door but Millar then began to kick at the door to the point were the injured party thought the door would 'come in', the court was told.

The prosecutor said when it was indicated that police were being called, the defendant made off.

The prosecutor added: "There were a number of children present in the barber shop at the time who were upset".

A defence barrister said Millar and the injured party had been "friends" prior to the incident.

The lawyer said on November 25 Millar had been out watching football going from one pub to the other and it was alleged there had been "some sort of argument between the injured party and someone else and Mr Millar fully accepts he was completely under the influence of alcohol and was acting very out of character and he got involved in that and that resulted in the incident".

The lawyer said the defendant had "whiskey" which he doesn't normally drink and he deeply regretted the incident.

The court heard Millar is a taxi driver.

District Judge Nigel Broderick said he was struggling to understand what happened as it seemed "bizarre" that the defendant would have attacked a "friend" in such a violent way "in front of children just getting their hair cut".

He told Millar: "You could imagine being a young child waiting to get your hair cut and then someone like you comes in violently and assaults the owner of the shop and then tries to kick the door in. So that makes it a serious matter".

As well as 75 hours Community Service the defendant was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to the injured party.