Judge tells man he has been '˜a very spoilt boy'

Handing down a suspended sentence to a Laurelvale man a judge told him this was the last opportunity he was getting from the court.

“At 22 years of age you should grow up. You’ve been a very spoilt boy,” she told him.

Stewart Knox, Old Mill Manor, Laurelvale, admitted disorderly behaviour in Portadown on June 12 last year.

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The case had been adjourned until last Wednesday’s sitting of Craigavon Magistrates Court.

A public prosecutor said that at 1am in West Street police saw the defendant outside a bar arguing with door staff.

Police tried to calm him down but he started shouting and swearing at them and acting in a disorderly manner.

To try and diffuse the situation police walked away but Knox continued to argue with the door staff.

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Police asked him to lower his tone but he continued shouting and swearing and they moved him a short distance away.

But when he was released he went back to the bar.

Knox then put his camera phone into the faces of police and was goading them. He was arrested for disorderly behaviour.

A barrister representing the defendant said he had a very relevant record which included a suspended sentence.

He said that the matter happened through drink.

District Judge, Mrs Bernie Kelly, said he should not blame the drink.

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“He is a nasty individual in himself and when he drinks the nasty individual comes to the fore,” she added.

The barrister said Knox did have some behavioural issues and faced a case in the Crown Court in February.

He explained that on the night of this offence he had been told he was going to be prosecuted for the Crown Court case and he went out and behaved like this.

Judge Kelly said that with his medication Knox cannot consume alcohol but here he made the deliberate decision to go out and get full drunk.

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She added that he then became a public nuisance not only with the police but a member of the public felt threatened by him and she, a completely innocent member of the public he didn’t know, was left in tears.

Judge Kelly sentenced Knox to five months in prison but suspended the term for three years.

“This is the very last opportunity you are going to get,” she told him.

“At 22 years of age you should grow up. You’ve been a very spoilt boy.”

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