PSNI car 'rammed after creeper-style Belfast burglary,' court told

A stolen car allegedly rammed three PSNI vehicles as part of a deliberate attempt to drive officers off a road in west Belfast, a court has been told.

A judge was told one policeman was injured in the collisions following a burglary on a house in the north of the city.

Details emerged as two of the men accused of involvement in the creeper-style raid and subsequent motoring offences were refused bail.

Intruders took a Chevrolet Lacetti and other items from a house at Oldpark Road in the early hours of August 22 last year.

The car was later spotted on the Bell Steel Road.

Three police vehicles were rammed before the Chevrolet was stopped and three men arrested at the scene, according to the PSNI.

Ryan McFadden, 26, from Lower Regent Street, Belfast; Daniel Rhodes, 27, of Waring Street in the city; and 21-year-old Andrew Morrison, from Lettercreeve in Ballymena, Co Antrim, are all charged with burglary and aggravated vehicle taking causing damage and injury to a police sergeant.

Morrison faces a further count of driving when unfit through drink of drugs.

As McFadden and Rhodes sought bail at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, defence lawyers argued that they both deny taking part in the burglary.

They only got into the car at a later stage as passengers to look for drugs, it was claimed.

Solicitor Pearse MacDermott, representing Rhodes, submitted: “He said he didn’t know the driver and never suspected the vehicle was stolen.”

He added that a footwear impression taken as potential evidence has not matched any of the defendants.

But opposing the bail applications, a detective stressed: “Three police vehicles were struck and an officer injured.

“One of the vehicles appeared to be deliberately struck in an attempt to get it off the road.”

Denying bail to McFadden and Rhodes, Deputy District Judge Liam McStay held that it was still too soon to consider releasing them.

He said: “Even if their lesser accounts are the reason why they were in the vehicle, there are still very serious issues to be faced by both these men.”