Teenage drug addict refused bail by court

Remanding 19-year-old Robert Davey back into custody at Lisburn Magistrates Court, District Judge Rosie Watters said she had “a responsibility to protect the public and I’m concerned about the commission of further offences.”

Davey, who appeared via videolink from the Young Offenders Centre but who is from Drumbeg Drive in Lisburn, is charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to two female nurses, assaulting two further female nurses, falsely imprisoning one of his alleged victims and causing actual bodily harm to a male patient, all alleged to have occurred on 2 August this year.

A police constable told the court how Davey was a voluntary inpatient on the psychiatric ward at Laganvalley Hospital when he launched what she described as a “series of unprovoked assaults” on his alleged victims.

The officer outlined how Davey allegedly punched his first victim to the ground in an attacked which he continued as she lay on the ground and that when a make patient tried to intervene, Davey allegedly attacked him until a second nurse came and he was restrained.

Having allegedly kicked the second nurse, Davey “got to his feet and lashes out at the nurse again” before running after a third nurse who shut herself into the nurses station.

Davey however allegedly got the door opened and then locked both doors into and out of the station, locking himself and his terrified victim inside where he allegedly assaulted her as she tried to flee.

The constable said the male patient again intervened to restrain him in a headlock but Davey allegedly bit his arm so hard the wound began to bleed, adding that other staff restrained Davey until the police arrived.

Revealing that Davey has already amassed 45 previous convictions including offences of common assault and one of serious assault, the constable said police were objecting to bail amid fears that he would reoffend and is “a risk to the public and himself [who] cannot be managed in the community.”

Defence lawyer Peter Coiley said Davey had voluntarily attended at the hospital in an effort to address his addictions, specifically to so-called legal highs but conceded that given the “alarming attack” it was a difficult bail application to make.

Judge Watters said she “personally do not feel it’s an appropriate case for bail” and remanded Davey into custody to appear again on 14 September.