Dundrum woman jailed after ‘chances run out’

Dundrum woman jailed after ‘chances run out’

12 February 2014

A DUNDRUM woman who was involved in an incident with police less than a month after she appeared in court has been jailed for eight months.

A drunken Lindsay Cowan was arrested by police at her Carrigard home on June 30 last year following complaints of a disturbance.

On June 3 she appeared in court for damaging a car boot in April, but sentencing had been deferred.

At Downpatrick Court on Thursday District Judge Greg McCourt told her: “I have given you chances time and again. The message must go out.”

The court heard how during the incident on June 30 Cowan was arrested for disorderly behaviour and resisting police.

Police were back Cowan’s home on September 14 as a result of a domestic disturbance. As she was being handcuffed she bit a policewoman’s thigh.

A barrister said 30 year-old Cowan, who has 37 previous criminal convictions, had been abused since she was eleven years old and was an alcoholic.

“Alcohol is the difficulty,” the barrister continued. “She is a lovely girl when she is not drunk. When she takes to the bottle the problems arise. She is desperately in need of help.

Cowan was jailed for five months for disorderly behaviour, assault on police, two counts of resisting police and a further charge of criminal damage. A three-month suspended sentence was activated and will run consecutively.

Judge McCourt told her: “I made an exception for you on June 3, but no, you have offended on two occasions since then.”