Harley McHenry (33) was dealt an 18-month sentence.
Sentencing Harley McHenry at Antrim Crown Court and ordering the 33-year-old to serve half the sentence in jail and half under supervised licence conditions, Judge Alistair Devlin warned him that he would continue to appear in the dock unless he properly addresses his alcohol intake and addiction.
In his scathing sentencing remarks, the judge highlighted that amongst McHenry’s 93 previous criminal convictions, there were 29 convictions for assaulting police and that over his repeated and frequent court visits, every sentencing option has been imposed.
Probation orders, suspended sentences and periods of immediate custody have been tried to stop McHenry from offending, “all to no avail,” said Judge Devlin, adding that “he will now face the inevitability of a custodial sentence.”
Harley McHenry
At an earlier hearing McHenry, from Brookfield Gardens in Ahoghill, entered guilty pleas to five charges of assaulting police officers and one of causing criminal damage to a constable’s watch, all committed on 5 March 2024.
Jailing McHenry today, Judge Devlin described how police were called to Joey’s Bar in Ballymoney over reports that a man and woman had been causing a disturbance in the pub.
When police arrived, the pair had already left but officers spoke to McHenry and the woman at the railway station.
The officers told McHenry, whose face was already bleeding and swollen, that they intended to search him and it was then, said the judge, that McHenry “became agitated.”
As the first two officers tried to place handcuffs on McHenry, he kicked the two constables, tried to bite one of them and spat at the other.
Harley McHenry
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Constable McNiece, the court heard, was “kicked about the head and body several times” and due to his aggressions and behaviour, three other officers arrived at the scene to assist.
During the ensuing struggle as the officers tried to restrain McHenry, to place him in limb restraints and a spit guard, he continued to lash out, kicking and punching and trying to bite them.
The sole female officer at the scene, was forcibly grabbed by the hand and had her watch damaged as McHenry “called her a slut” and Judge Devlin told the court that McHenry bit an officer’s hand with sufficient force that he drew blood.
Even when the officers managed to get McHenry into a police vehicle, he still continued to lash out and tried to bite an officer on the hand.
During police interviews, McHenry claimed the officers had been “beating the f*** out of me” and suggested the officer’s watch had been broken by the constable “hitting the defendant”.
Judge Devlin told the court there were numerous aggravating features to the “prolonged period of bad behaviour,” including that McHenry called the female officer a “grossly derogatory term,” his “atrocious criminal record” and that he was “grossly intoxicated” at the time.
The judge said the case was “almost unique” as offences of assaulting police are usually dealt with in the Magistrates Court but “quite clearly,” the PPS had decided that given his record, the sentencing powers of the lower court were not sufficient.
“I readily agree with that,” Judge Devlin said, adding that “as if these offences were not bad enough,” McHenry had gone on to assault six more officers in separate incidents in May, July and September last year.
While the defence had contended that a probation order could be imposed to try to halt McHenry’s offending pattern, the judge said multiple orders had been tried and failed so “this court is not going to waste its time, and waste the hard-pressed resources of probation” by trying again.