A pensioner who subjected his disabled wife of more than 50 years to a “frankly harrowing” domestic assault has been handed a five month prison sentence.
Ballymena Magistrates Court heard that during an argument in the former marital home on October 27 last year, Stewart John Nicholl (75) pushed his wife to the floor, kicked her and “slapped her to the face”.
The woman, who has mobility issues and uses a crutch to get around, was not able to get up so lay on the floor for several hours.
A prosecuting lawyer told the court that all the while, Nicholl was subjecting her to verbal abuse.
She managed to drag herself to the bathroom where she locked the door but Nicholl threatened “I am going to kill you and it’s going to be done slowly, over a few days”.
While Nicholl had taken his wife’s mobile phone, she was wearing an Apple watch and used it to call police.
The lawyer said that when officers arrived “she was still in the bathroom on the floor and police helped her up,” adding that the pensioner was “very distressed”.
Arrested and interveiwed Nicholl, with a bail address at Strangford Heights in Newtownards, conceded he was “probably” verbally abusive and later entered guilty pleas to offences of making a threat to kill, assault, threatening behaviour and criminal damage.
Defence counsel Connell Trainor conceded that “clearly it’s an appalling set of facts”.
“He knows that custody is a very real prospect,” the barrister told the court but he submitted that given the clear record and guilty pleas that Nicholl could be handed a suspended sentence or even a combination order of probation and community service.
District Judge Nigel Broderick told Nicholl told Nicholl: "These facts are quite frankly harrowing. The horrors you put her through are nothing short of despicable.”
Highlighting that the victim is elderly and vulnerable, the judge said she was attacked “in her home where she should feel safe and that she should certainly not have been attacked by her husband”.
While the judge imposed a five month jail sentence and Nicholl was taken to the cells for a time, he was freed on bail pending an appeal a short time later.