Man appears in court on GBH charges after ‘fight’ in shopping centre

A shopping centre fight in a feud that has lasted more than 20 years has left a victim potentially blind in one eye after it was gouged, a court heard on Friday.

A detective told Lisburn Magistrates Court that while the police are constrained about what they can disclose to the court as much of their information is “sensitive” and has been obtained “as a result of intelligence, we know that they know each other and we believe there is an ongoing feud between these two men.”

Appearing at court by videolink from police custody, 38-year-old Ebony Hughes, from Ardcarn park in Newry, Co Down, was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on 9 July this year.

While Hughes confirmed he understood the single charge against him, a police officer told the court he believed he could connect Hughes to the offence, adding that police were objecting to bail.

The officer outlined how the complainant contacted police on 10 July to report that he had been the victim of an assault in the Buttercrane Shopping Centre the previous day.

The court heard that while the alleged feud between Hughes and his alleged victim has been ongoing since 2002, the fight itself lasted just 27 seconds and was captured on CCTV.

The officer told the court that according to a verbal account from the complainant, he was “attacked” by Hughes; he suffered broken ribs and has “lost the sight of his right eye as a result of the fight.”

He described how “this occurred in Buttercrane shopping centre, in front of the injured party’s mother and nine-year-old child and members of the public and Mr Hughes did not hesitate in head butting the complainant.”

“At the end of the fight we can see Mr Hughes raising his right hand up to the alleged victim’s face and he immediately puts his hands to his face as if he has been injured,” said the officer, “we believe he has used his finger to place it in to the eye of the complainant.”

District Judge Rosie Watters asked if the men were “known to each other,” and the officer confirmed “they have history” but revealed that as a lot of information is intelligence based, “a lot of the information police hold cannot be disclosed to the court.”

Hughes’ defence lawyer conceded there had been a fight which was captured on CCTV but he argued that footage had also caught the alleged victim’s mother using an umbrella during the altercation.

Revealing that the complainant himself had an existing eye injury from a shotgun pellet six months beforehand, the lawyer suggested it was a possibility the umbrella could have caused the further injury to his eye.

Describing it as a “chance meeting” between the two men, the lawyer argued that bail conditions could be put in place which would allow Hughes out on bail and to carry on with his work with a local building firm but still keeping the men apart.

District Judge Rosemary Watters refused bail however and remanded Hughes into custody to appear again on July 24.

Remanding Hughes into custody, she adjourned the case to 24 July.