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Malachy Mulholland, aged 61, of Woodville Street, Lurgan, appeared in the dock at Craigavon Magistrates Court on Wednesday for sentencing. - - He had previously pleaded guilty at an earlier court to possessing a knife and two counts of common assault. The court heard that on August 1 last year police were tasked to Lord Lurgan Memorial Park following reports of a man with a knife "behaving aggressively towards children” in the park and “brandishing the knife”. "On arrival police spoke with the children on the football pitch along with a youth group leader. Two children were identified as having been confronted by the male with the knife,” said a Prosecutor, adding they gave a description of the male. The children also identified the house the man had gone into in Woodville St, Lurgan. Police attended the address where there was a man matching the description. During a search police located the knife. Five statements were recorded by police and footage was also provided to police. Mulholland has no criminal record. There were no victim impact statements. The defendant’s barrister Mr Joel Lindsay said the "assaults” were the “engendering of the fear”. He added his client is 61-years-old and had never come to police attention. Mr Lindsay said his client had been "tortured by locals” over a period of time. “It may be because he suffers already with mental health problems,” said Mr Lindsay, adding his client also has COPD and a physical disability rendering him unable to work. "A lot of youths, I’m not saying specifically these particular youths, but a number of youths have been coming round to his house, banging doors, shouting things etc and he has tried to ignore that. I think he has reported it to police on a number of occasions. "This continued and continued until this particular night he is having his dinner and a ball was hitting against the door and then at that stage…. "I rarely have seen a report (Pre-Sentence Report) where somebody is so remorseful. He accepts this shouldn’t have happened. "He lost his temper and he ran out with the knife in his hand and chased the youths to a park,” said Mr Lindsay, who pointed out his client’s insight into the victims’ stress and that the PSR regards him as a “low likelihood” of reoffending. Mr Lindsay said his client was “tearful” in consultation and “very chastened” and “insistent that it would never happen again”. District Judge Michael Ranaghan said: “No one should come out of a house waving a knife about. Nobody should approach children in the fashion you have. I have no doubt your victims in this case were utterly terrified. "I have no doubt that that 13-year-old boy, perhaps there was a significant impact, albeit I have not heard about that today. "My understanding is that we will not see Mr Mulholland again. There are expressions of remorse in that report which I think are genuine,” said the District Judge sentencing the defendant to five months in jail suspended for 12 months on each charge to run concurrently.
