A teenager has appeared in court after slurry was sprayed across the streets of Ballymena ahead of the town’s inaugural Pride parade.
The first Mid & East Antrim Pride took place in Ballymena, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Saturday (28 June), an event which organisers said they were told not to go ahead with but were “blown away” by the support they received from the local community on the day.
However, hours before the event began, a manure-like slurry was poured over the roads, included along the parade route.
Isaac Adams, from Lislaban Road, Cloughmills, appeared at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court on Monday (30 June), charged with criminal damage, possession of an article with a blade or point and causing material to be deposited on a road.
Adams, 19, admitted distributing the slurry to protest against Pride, describing it as a “prank”.
The court was told he was caught by police in the town centre at around 2.45am, wearing a balaclava and carrying two empty 25-litre jugs which had allegedly contained the slurry. A lock knife was also found on him, the court heard.
Under caution, Adams, a maintenance engineer at a family-run farm, admitted to police that he had spread the slurry with the intent to disrupt the Pride event, wore the balaclava to conceal his identity and was not the only person involved in the act.
His lawyer, Stewart Ballentine, told the court his client had never been in trouble with the law before, was co-operative with the police, is in full-time employment and was remorseful.
“He indicated that he was foolish and stupid to get involved in this prank, as he describes it, but it obviously backfired on him,” Mr Ballentine said, as quoted by the Press Association in Belfast Live.
“It wasn’t a slurry tanker as such that was driving up the streets of Ballymena. These were some small canisters with hen manure in them,” Ballentine told the court. “As far as the parade on Saturday was concerned, that was not in any way inconvenienced, and all persons who wished to attend were able to do so.”
The court was told that it cost the local authority £788.39 to clean up the mess.
“This man has never been arrested in his life before. He’s had an experience of being detained in custody all over the weekend, and this is totally new to this young man, and hopefully, he will never be back,” Ballentine went on to say.
“He comes from a very law-abiding stock, a family in the North Antrim area, and he’s a hard-working young man, and really should have been at other, more-productive things than this prank, which badly went wrong.”
A number of references were handed into court, including from Adams’ employer and elder members of his church, who said his actions were “very much out of character”.
Adams was released on bail under several conditions including abiding to a curfew between 11pm and 5am, not entering any part of Ballymena, not having a phone with internet access and residing at his current address.
He was warned that breaching the bail conditions would not be considered a prank and is due back in court on 24 July.
A second man, aged 20, was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, including criminal damage and aiding and abetting criminal damage. He has been released on bail.
The post Teen in court after slurry sprayed on streets ahead of Pride event appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.