A man, who was prohibited from drinking alcohol under his bail conditions, answered the door of his home to police holding a can of beer, a court has heard.

At Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday, it was heard police were called to an address on March 26 at around 11.30pm.

Matthew Acheson (18), of Queen Street, Enniskillen, and who is facing charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault on police, resisting police and arson all relating to incidents on October 9, 2021, answered the door holding a tin of beer.

Due his bail conditions this was prohibited.

After discussions, Acheson took a preliminary breath test which returned a reading of 61mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath and was cautioned.

It was after caution he tried to continue drinking from the tin.

A police officer told the court they were opposing bail as Acheson had breached bail in the past.

They pointed out his bail had only been perfected on March 13 and he refused to initially permit police into the house.

The officer added that Acheson still attempted to drink in the presence of the officers and showed a total disregard to bail.

Self-medicating

Ciaran Roddy, Acheson’s barrister, told the court he had been instructed that his client had ran out of his prescribed medication and was self-medicating with alcohol.

He said Acheson had served the equivalent of a nine month prison sentence having been in custody since October and he would be near enough if not past time served.

Mr. Roddy asked the court to take into account the defendant was within his bail address and there were no further offences committed but added it was unacceptable to be consuming alcohol so soon after leaving custody.

Deputy District Judge John Rea said there seemed to be a “blatant disregard” for Acheson’s bail conditions and he refused to release him on bail as he could not be satisfied Acheson would adhere to his bail conditions.