Belfast man who gouged policewoman's eye given 240 hours community service

A Belfast man who gouged a policewoman’s eye and lashed out another female officer has been given 240 hours community service.

Conor Herbert attacked the pair during a drug-fuelled episode where he tried to wrestle control of their moving PSNI car.

The 29-year-old civil servant was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to both victims.

District Judge Steven Keown told him he had only just avoided being jailed.

Herbert, of Merrion Park in the Dunmurry area, admitted two counts of assault on police, criminal damage and interfering with a motor vehicle causing danger.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard the officers encountered him at a city centre location in the early hours of May 31 this year.

Herbert was behaving erratically and claimed that he was being chased by people with a gun.

He agreed to be taken to the Ulster Hospital for medical treatment but became paranoid and abusive on the journey.

Prosecutors said he began shouting that the officers were going to “turn him in” and broke off a rear door handle while the car was in motion.

When Herbert was moved to the front passenger seat he attempted to grab the controls and ripped off a rear view mirror from the still-travelling vehicle, putting other road users at risk.

“He gouged a constable in her left eye and struck her on the upper body,” a Crown lawyer disclosed.

During the struggle her colleague was also hit and injured, with both officers sustaining several bruises.

Defence barrister Caitriona Keenan told the court Herbert had suffered a drug-influenced paranoid episode where his condition deteriorated while being transported to hospital.

“He became scared and began to lash out in a bid to escape what he genuinely believed to be a dangerous situation,” she said.

“He was completely mortified on learning of his actions and extremely apologetic.”

According to counsel, the defendant has not used cocaine since the incident and vowed never to take illicit substances again.

“This has haunted him, he has learnt his lesson in the harshest way.”

Ordering Herbert to carry out community service and pay compensation to the victims, Mr Keown stressed his previous clear record and guilty pleas were the only reasons for not sending him to prison.

The judge stated: “An average, hard-working man doesn’t assault two female police officers and try to gouge the eye out of one of them.”

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