Man escapes prison after family dispute over land

Man escapes prison after family dispute over land

11 November 2015

A MAN has escaped a jail term for his role in a “disturbing and ugly incident’’ which centred on a family dispute over land.

Robert Jamison (22) had previously pleaded guilty to affray and possession of bats, hurls, sticks and metal bars during the incident on a Downpatrick farm last year.

Judge Stephen Fowler QC had deferred sentence on Jamison from April “to prove himself’’ as he had a previous conviction for affray and possessing an offensive weapon from 2012 for which he received a nine month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Prosecution lawyer Gareth Purvis told the court that in those six months Jamison “had not come to any further police attention’’.

The court was told that Jamison’s four co-accused had all received suspended sentences when they were sentenced in April.

Stephanie Kearney (42), of Pegasus Walk, Downpatrick; Raymond Thomas Norton (28), of Killough Park, Downpatrick; his father Edward Raymond Norton (64), of Slieveshan Park, Kilkeel; and Darryl Jamison (20), of Ballykeel Court, Ballymartin, all received one year sentences suspended for three years.

Jamison, of Ballymartin Village, Kilkeel, was sentenced to a one year suspended sentence.

The judge said he would “make no order’’ in relation to the breach of the nine-month suspended sentence.

In April, Downpatrick Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard that the charges related to an incident which happened on February 28, 2014 at a Downpatrick farm owned by Maureen McKibben, a sister of defendant Stephanie Kearney.

Prosecution QC David McDowell told the court that at 1.40 am three car loads of people turned up at the lane way of Maureen McKibben’s isolated home on the Killough Road which had been protected by CCTV cameras.

The judge was told that Maureen McKibben, her son Jonathan and her partner Martin McAleavey went to investigate.

Jonathan McKibben had told police that he feared trouble when he heard the cars coming up the lane-way and lifted a golf club which was sitting outside the front door because of his concerns about trouble due to an ongoing family dispute which centred on a disagreement over a family farm.

He went outside and saw the defendants were swinging their weapons and making threatening and abusive remarks.

Stephanie Kearney had got out of one of the cars, the court was told, and grabbed her sister Maureen McKibben by the hair and trailed her into the middle of the group of men, threatening her and hitting her around the head with her free hand.

The incident only came to end when the three residents managed to get back into their house to contact police and other family members.

Police later spotted three suspicious cars leaving the scene. Two of the cars split away and the police patrol pursued the single car before bringing it to a halt.

Inside the vehicle was Edward Raymond Norton at the wheel along with his passengers Robert and Darryl Jamison. Stephanie Kearney and Raymond Thomas Norton were later arrested during follow up inquiries.

Police also recovered sticks, bats, hurls and metal bars.