Meanwhile…..in Tyrone

[ONeill]

Bizarre case of masked man found in cattle barn with vet's glove and broom shaft


By Ronan McSherry

WHEN a local farmer went to investigate noises in his barn during the early hours of the morning, he found a 'blind' man wearing a balaclava, a veterinary inspection glove and carrying a wooden brush shaft.

This "bizarre and unusual" case was heard before Omagh Crown Court last week when Anthony Morris (44), of Bradkeel Road, Plumbridge, faced a charge of intending to cause damage to cattle. Morris also had a torch strapped to his head and was carrying a piece of rope.

He attempted to hide himself when the farmer, a former employer of Morris, and his brother entered the barn at 2am in the morning. However, they managed to drag Morris over the top of a cattle pen and pin him down on silage while they waited for police to arrive.

While he was being held, the intruder spoke in a 'foreign accent' saying, "Me-me-steal-ear-tags. Me-me-look-at-tags."

Police officers arrived at the scene and removed the balaclava to reveal Morris who had worked for the farmer in the past.

He was wearing a body warmer that he stole from the farmer's lorry a number of weeks earlier and was also carrying a penknife.

The farmer recognised his body warmer due to the presence of sheep's wool under a piece of Velcro on its left side, stains on the collar and a faulty zipper.
In a day-long trial, described by a defence barrister as a "strange and unusual case," Morris was found guilty of possessing a pen knife, an inspection glove, a wooden shaft and a piece of blue rope with the intent of causing damage to cattle, as well as stealing a body warmer and a Solar calculator that was in its pocket.

QUESTIONED

Morris was originally questioned about 'cruelty to animals.' However, none of the cattle in the barn were injured and it was not stated in Omagh Crown Court what he specifically intended to do to the animals.

During the trial he walked with the aid of a stick and claimed to be totally blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other. Morris said that he can only see "black blobs" and was diagnosed with limited sight in 2005.

However during the trial it emerged that he had a collision on his motorbike in 2008.

In an attempt to explain his presence in the barn, Morris claimed that a man he described as "a blast from the past", whom he hadn't seen in 17 years, came to his house in the early hours of March 18 last year, and forced him to go to the barn with him.

He said the man told him that the farmer who owned the barn had stolen three of his cows.

Morris, however, refused to reveal the identity of the man, and in an interview read to the jury of six men and six women he  said to investigating police officers, "I felt the b******d would take my f*****g head off."

He also claimed that the man threatened to harm his 14-year-old son.

Morris further claimed that he told the man there was no way the farmer would have stolen the cattle and described him as "straight as a gun barrel."

THREATENED WITH A GUN

Under cross-examination by prosecution barrister Michael McAleer, the defendant added, "I knew the history of this man who made me go to the barn. He touched me with something metal."

Mr McAleer asked, "Are you going to tell us what it was?"

Morris replied, "No."

The barrister then asked, "Was it a stick? A bar? A coat hanger?"

Morris responded, "It wasn't a coat hanger."

The barrister then asked whether the metal was a gun.

Morris replied, "It was a gun. On May 17, 1995 this person (the man) starts the way he always starts; slobbering, saying what he's going to do. I put him on the ground with a knuckle duster and I got three years."

Morris was adamant that he did not intend harming the cattle. He stressed that he was forced to go to the barn in a car with the mystery man to check the tags on the cattle.

None of the witnesses or police saw a man or a car in the area of the farm that morning.

GUILTY

The jury took approximately one hour to reach their verdict. They found Morris guilty on both counts.

It was then revealed that he has an extensive criminal record, with convictions for burglary, firearms, six theft offences and road traffic violations.
He will be sentenced in Derry Crown Court on April 17.

Morris was allowed to remain on bail but was warned by Judge Phillip Babington, "You should not take that as an indication of what will happen to you."

http://ulsterherald.com/2013/03/22/bizarre-case-of-masked-man-found-in-cattle-barn-with-vets-glove-and-broom-shaft/

[omagh_gael]

Read that today. Yon is some hallion.

[Niall Quinn]

Brilliant - when reality stretches beyond parody!

[rrhf]

They need to change the rules to prevent this happening again.

[ONeill]

Plumbridge is a fascinating place.

[All of a Sludden]

Omagh court, is that where a certain Mr M. Harte does the pre-sentence reports?

[stew]

Plumbridge is a fascinating place.

Tis, I used to go out with wan from main street there, fine hen she was too!

[ONeill]

Don't understand why the farmer didn't try to pull the balaclava off before the police arrived.

[ONeill]

Jaysus there's more:

By Court correspondent Ronan McSherry


Bizarre assembly of articles

When he was questioned by police and in the witness box at Omagh Crown Court, Anthony Morris gave detailed explanation as to why he was in possession of what his barrister Sean Doherty, described as a "bizarre assembly of articles" in a neighbour's cattle barn at two o'clock in the morning.

Morris (44) of Bradkeel Road was wearing a balaclava with a torch strapped to his forehead and in possession of a rubber veterinary inspection glove, a brush shaft, a penknife and a blue rope when he was apprehended by the farmer who owns the barn.

When he was arrested in the early hours of March 18 last year, he admitted to police that he wore the balaclava to conceal his identity. However he later changed his story and said that in his haste to get out of his house, he lifted it "by mistake" rather than a woollen cap from behind the door. He described the balaclava as a "face warmer" he wore when he had a motorbike. The balaclava, with eye holes and a slot for the mouth cut out, was shown to the jury and he told them that he made it from the leg of an 'old' tracksuit bottom. Morris explained that "a man," who he refused to name, walked into his living room and forced him to go to the barn to look at ear tags on the cattle. He said the man told him three cows had been stolen from him by the farmer.

The wooden shaft was also shown to the jury through plastic on a box as it was "contaminated." Morris claimed he also lifted the wooden shaft on his way out of the house to help him keep his balance. He said he had taken his medication, which made him dizzy, and was ready to go to bed when the man arrived. He claimed his walking stick was in a store room. Morris told the jury, "The man said, 'alright you come on.' I got up and went to the door and stuck on a pair of wellingtons. I found myself wobbling in light of the tablets and reached for the brush shaft in the bucket."

Seventeen cats

The inspection glove according to Morris was already in the pocket of the body warmer. Apart from 17 cats, he said he has no animals and uses the glove to clean fungi out of a water barrel. He told the jury that he cleaned the barrel in the past without the glove and the cold caused him severe pain.  He said, "I lifted out algae from the barrel two and a half feet deep and this bitter pain went up my arm the whole way up to my shoulder. I went into the house and held my arm over a heater for ten minutes." He also said that cow manure was on the glove because he used it to wipe it off a gate in the barn.

He said he always carried the penknife and used it to open dry food for his kittens.

Morris denied any knowledge of the blue rope which was found tied from a cattle crush to a wooden palate in the barn.

He was also adamant that he did not steal the body warmer weeks earlier out of the farmer's cattle lorry. He said wool on the jacket identified by the owner got there when he fell in a field where there were sheep. The calculator which was in the pocket was found by police on the mantelpiece in Morris's home. He claimed police lied and that it was his and they found it in a drawer.

Prosecution barrister Michael McAleer said the items were "like a puzzle in a TV show" and described the defendant's explanations as "nonsense."

Morris also claimed the farmer fired a shot from a gun when he encountered him in the barn and told him he would "blow his f*****g head off."   

The Prosecution described the claim as an attempt to "fudge why he was in the barn that night."

Police found no evidence that a gun was discharged during the entire episode.

Following the guilty verdicts, the farmer told the UlsterHerald, "I am very pleased with the result."

[bennydorano]

Do you think did they say 'blue rope' instead of bailer twine on purpose to make it sound less culchie?

[Tony Baloney]

Do you think did they say 'blue rope' instead of bailer twine on purpose to make it sound less culchie?

I think the damage is done in the rest of the story. Like a scene from a League of Gentlemen.

[trileacman]

Another shocking example of the lack of regulation in the agriculture industry.

[deiseach]

[bennydorano]

Jesus Viz probably wouldn't print that one.

[Carmen Stateside]

When I was reading this I was thinking it was an ONeill story! Blind person, balaclava and light strapped to forehead! Mc Sherry must have had some weeks laugh following that case! That actually give me a good laugh. More threads like this please.