A 38-YEAR-OLD man has been acquitted of criminal damage at Enniskillen Magistrates Court.

Nicholas Fee, of Castle Grange, Lisnaskea was facing the single charge on Monday in relation to an incident on December 29 last when it was alleged he damaged the front window of the house he shared with his partner at the time.

Fee, who gave evidence in court, said that on the night in question he had been having an argument with his partner and she left to go to her car.

However, Fee said because she had been drinking, he went out to stop herm and tried to take the car keys off her before she ran back into the house and locked the door.

Fee said that because he had valuable property in the house, and claimed that his partner had damaged property of his before, he wanted to get back into the house, so he pushed in a window that allowed him to re-enter the property.

Fee told the court this window had already been damaged a few weeks prior to this incident by his partner, and was due to be fixed, and he was going to pay for it.

After he got back into the property, Fee said his partner left and said that he had broken the window.

During cross-examination by the prosecution, Fee was asked why he did not report the incident to police. He said he was not the kind of person to waste police time on something so trivial.

However, the prosecution put it to him that the defendant wanted to get into the house “by hook or by crook” and wanted revenge for being locked out, which Fee strongly denied.

Fee was again asked why he did not phone the police, and it was pointed out that in his interview, he called the police force “sexist” and said that his partner got away with everything.

Fee explained this was in relation to him being told that his partner could do whatever she wanted in her own property, when he raised allegations of her damaging his property to police.

In his findings, District Judge Steven Keown said he was satisfied that the window was already broken and Fee pushed it in to get into protect his property after the argument with his partner.

Judge Keown accepted that Fee had a lawful excuse defence, and dismissed the charge against him.