A man who broke the wrist of his 94-year-old mother when he shoved her to the floor and kicked her has been jailed.
Ordering Darren McCrudden (53) to serve half his three and a half year sentence in jail and half under supervised licence, Judge Patrick Lynch KC told him he had a “deplorable” criminal record including previous assaults on his mum but that this latest incident was “totally reprehensible and inexcusable”.
The Craigavon Crown Court judge said it was a serious matter to cause anyone actual bodily harm but this case was all the worse given that it related to a 94-year-old victim who “has the obvious fragility associated with people of that age” and also that she was assaulted in her own home by her own son.
McCrudden, from the Hornbeam Road in Dunmurry, had earlier admitted offences of causing his mum actual bodily harm, breaching a restraining order and assaulting police.
Prosecuting counsel Nicola Auret told the court that police were called to the victim’s home on July 6 last year and she told them how McCrudden had come home drunk and started an argument with her in the kitchen.
“He pushed her and she fell to the floor, hurting her wrist and while she was on the floor he kicked her to the hip,” said the barrister, adding that by attacking her McCrudden had breached a restraining order which is set to run until December this year.
When police arrived they found McCrudden lying on a bed upstairs and as he was being taken from the property, “he directed a barrage of abuse at his mother” before spitting on one of the officers.
The victim was taken to hospital where X-rays showed she had sustained a fracture to her right wrist.
“He was remorseful and upset during the interview,” Ms Auret told the court submitting there were multiple aggravating factors to the case including the age of the victim, that she had been assaulted in her own home, the domestic aspect to the case and McCrudden’s “record for violence”.
Defence counsel Patrick Taylor conceded the assault had been a “deeply unsavoury incident” but he emphasised that McCrudden had entered early guilty pleas and “has expressed remorse and a desire to change”.
Judge Lynch said while he accepted that in sobriety McCrudden “is a perfectly pleasant person,” he had a multiplicity of convictions for common assault, assaulting the police and disorderly behaviour “no doubt all committed when you had been drinking”.