A PENSIONER who brandished an “enormous” knife while telling three Portuguese women that they “are not from here” and “have no rights” has been jailed.
Armed police were called to arrest Bernard McDonough (70) at his neighbour’s barbecue and he was subsequently charged and convicted of affray – using or threatening violence which causes others to fear for their safety.
McDonough initially tried to claim that the victims had attacked him and he had acted in self-defence. However, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, he was jailed for ten months.
The court heard that the incident began in the communal area of a St Helier block of flats on 9 May, where a resident – who regarded the defendant as “like a grandfather” – was having a barbecue with two other women.
Legal adviser Kerry Grieve, prosecuting, said one of the women had returned from a shop and saw McDonough repeatedly picking up her kitchen knife and dropping it onto a chopping board.
When she questioned him, McDonough – who had returned from the pub – became aggressive and accused her of treating him like a child.
The prosecutor said he swore at the three women, who were Portuguese, and told them “you are not from here” and “you have no rights”.
They tried to calm him, but he continued to abuse them. McDonough threw a chair towards one woman, who caught it and placed it on the ground. He also took another woman’s glasses from her face and threw them away before returning to his flat.
McDonough then re-emerged brandishing what was described in court as a “large knife” and declared: “I’ll show you what a knife is.”
A struggle followed in which McDonough fell and hit his head before pulling one woman’s hair. The three women managed to take the knife from him.
Armed police attended and McDonough followed their instructions to leave the flat.
He told officers: “I can’t believe it. They attacked me and then called the police on me.”
During his police interview, McDonough said he had been using a knife to cut tape while repairing a chair.
He admitted pulling the woman’s hair but claimed he had acted in self-defence. He denied brandishing the knife.
McDonough also accepted throwing a chair and kicking a table but maintained that neither had been aimed at the women.
He admitted calling the women “foreigners” and swearing at them, but denied that his comments were motivated by racism. He said they concerned one woman’s right to live at the property.
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, described the incident as “spontaneous and unplanned” and said it had grown out of an argument between neighbours.
The court heard that McDonough had expressed remorse in a letter and recognised the distress he had caused. He had lost his accommodation following the incident, spent 107 days in custody and was assessed as presenting a low risk of reconviction.
Magistrate Bridget Shaw, presiding, said McDonough had armed himself with a “dangerous weapon” and left the three women “quite traumatised”.
She described it as a “terrifying incident” involving a “huge, enormous knife” capable of causing serious injury.
Mrs Shaw said McDonough had started the confrontation and created a “very dangerous situation” which destroyed the women’s sense of safety.
She sentenced him to ten months in custody and imposed restraining orders protecting each of the women.
