Despite courts remaining in summer recess, there have still been a number of hearings this past week
Stock image of Belfast’s Laganside Courts(Image: Belfast Live )
Despite courts remaining in summer recess with very few sittings, there have still been a number of hearings across Northern Ireland this past week.
In one of the cases this week, a man learned he is to stand trial accused of beating his partner to death. His mother and a third defendant will also face prosecution for allegedly helping him flee the scene after the killing.
Also in this week’s court headlines, a Belfast builder was sentenced for agreeing to build a two-storey extension to a property in the city but he left the job substantially unfinished after being paid £20,000.
And a man accused of speeding failed to convince a judge to hear his case in Irish.
Below is our weekly roundup of some of those who have been before the courts this week, beginning August 4, 2025.
Look out for:
- Man accused of attacking pregnant woman ‘tried to force her face on to cooker’
- Builder fined £500 for leaving £53k extension unfinished
- Newtownabbey man facing domestic violence charges denied bail over breaches
- Judge declines to hear Co Antrim man’s speeding case in Irish
- MS sufferer denies role in rioting as he was on heavy medication, court told
- Woman rang 999 after ‘finding camera hidden in bedroom ceiling’
- Man and his mother to stand trial on charges linked to woman’s killing
Man accused of attacking pregnant woman ‘tried to force her face on to cooker’
A man allegedly attacked his heavily-pregnant partner by trying to press her face down onto a hot cooker, a police officer claimed in court this week.
Detective Constable Coulter further claimed that during the incident, Luke Curry “grabbed her baby bump forcefully…digging firmly in with his finger and threatened that he would ‘kill the wean’.”
Appearing at Coleraine Magistrates Court on Monday by video link from police custody, 30-year-old Curry was charged with seven offences, all alleged to have been committed on 2 August this year.
Curry, from Woodvale Mews in Derry, faces two charges of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, two charges of criminal damage and three of common assault.
Newtownards Magistrates’ Court (Image: Brian Lawless/PA Wire)
Builder fined £500 for leaving £53k extension unfinished
A Belfast builder, who agreed to build a two-storey extension to a property in the city but left the job substantially unfinished after being paid £20,000, has been given a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
In a case brought by the Trading Standards Service, Martin Spence, 57, of Pretoria Street, Belfast pleaded guilty to one charge under the Fraud Act 2006 and one charge under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
On Monday, he was fined £500 at Newtownards Magistrates’ Court and also ordered to pay £5,000 compensation to the victim.
Court heard the accused denies seven common assaults and one domestic abuse offence(Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
Newtownabbey man facing domestic violence charges denied bail over breaches
A man facing several domestic violence charges was refused permission to be resubmitted to bail after a judge cited recent breaches of conditions. Damien McGuinness, of Mill Road in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, is charged with three counts of non-fatal strangulation and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The 36-year-old is further accused, and also denies, seven common assaults and one domestic abuse offence. A prosecution lawyer told Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday the offences were allegedly committed against the defendant’s ex-partner on dates between May 2023 and June 2024.
(Image: PA)
Judge declines to hear Co Antrim man’s speeding case in Irish
A Co Antrim man accused of speeding has failed to convince a judge to hear his case in Irish.
Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena on Tuesday, heard in his email correspondence, Sean Curran had asked for any letters sent to him to be translated into Irish.
The 39-year-old, from Red Row in Toome and who faces a charge of excess speed on December 2 last year, had also asked for the proceedings to be conducted in Irish.
During an exchange between Curran and District Judge Nigel Broderick, it emerged that the 39-year-old had sought to argue that he was entitled to have his hearing conducted in Irish.
Disorder in Ballymena at the start of the summer(Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
MS sufferer denies role in rioting as he was on heavy medication, court told
A man with Multiple Sclerosis accused of taking part in the Ballymena riots cannot remember the incident because he was on heavy medication, the High Court heard on Wednesday.
Ricky Rae faces prosecution over allegations he threw a bottle at police during violence on the streets of the Co Antrim town earlier this summer.
The 26-year-old, of Laurel Park in Ahoghill, is charged with riotous assembly on June 10.
Trouble flared following an alleged sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena. Police came under attack from a mob several hundred-strong during the racially-motivated unrest.
Ballymena Magistrates’ Court(Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
NI woman rang 999 after ‘finding camera hidden in bedroom ceiling’
A North Antrim man accused of voyeurism hid a video camera and microphone in his ex’s bedroom, a court heard on Thursday.
Ballymena Magistrates Court also heard that after the woman had spotted the camera and fled her home, the 31-year-old defendant let himself back into her home and removed the camera, replacing it with a headlamp torch.
Appearing in the dock the defendant, who cannot be identified to protect the victim, was charged with three offences, including voyeurism, stalking and assault, alleged to have been committed between 1 May and 5 August this year.
Kathryn ‘Kat’ Parton(Image: PSNI)
Man and his mother to stand trial on charges linked to woman’s killing
A Belfast man is to stand trial accused of beating his partner to death, a judge ordered on Friday. Jamie Love, 24, has been charged with murdering Kathryn Parton at their home in the east of the city.
His mother, Suzanne Love, and a third defendant, Reece Oliver, will also face prosecution for allegedly helping him flee the scene after the killing. At Belfast Magistrates’ Court, the three accused were told they each have a case to answer at trial. Ms Parton’s body was found in the blood-stained bedroom of the house at Madrid Street in May last year.
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