Portadown man who assaulted his partner and damaged hairdryer given jail term at Craigavon court

Tomasz Rojek, aged 42, from Mahon Court, Portadown, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court charged with two counts of common assault and one charge of criminal damage.

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The court heard that on January 21 this year, at 8.24pm police received a third party report of a domestic incident. Police spoke with the injured party who, via a neighbour who interpreted, revealed her partner had been drinking all day.

“During the argument, she stated, the defendant raised his fists in a threatening manner and put her in fear of immediate violence. She also disclosed a similar incident had happened the day before (January 20) during which the defendant had pulled a kitchen knife putting her in fear that he would harm her or himself,” said the Prosecutor.

Rojek’s barrister Mr David McKeown said his client had been trying to plead for “quite some time”. He added that his client has been in custody since January 22 on these matters only.

Mr McKeown said: “He had been drinking and they previously had been in a strong relationship.”

District Judge Francis Rafferty sentenced Rojek to three months in prison on each charge.

When the interpreter explained this to Rojek, he asked: “Nine months in total?” He was told that it was three months in total as the sentences were running concurrently.

He said he had already spent two and a half months in jail and asked would that mean he would get out in two weeks? The District Judge said: “No, you will be getting out today.”