A Co Antrim teenager spread gallons of manure on a road before Ballymena’s first Pride Parade as part “of a prank,” a court heard.
Coleraine Magistrates Court also heard that Isaac Adams (19) “made full and frank admissions” to police when he was arrested.
Mr Adams was “literally caught in the headlights of the police vehicle” when committing the offence, defence solicitor Stewart Ballentine told the court.
In court on Monday, Mr Adams, from Lislaban Road in Cloughmills, confirmed his identity and that he understood the three charges against him, all alleged to have been committed on Jun 28th.
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He was charged with causing criminal damage to Granville Drive in Ballymena, causing chicken manure to be deposited on the road and possessing a bladed article, namely a lock knife.
A police statement said Mr Adams was arrested following reports of slurry being spread on the road at about 2.55am.
“The matter is being treated as a hate crime,” the PSNI statement said.
During Mr Adams’s brief court appearance, a PSNI officer gave evidence that she believed she could connect the teenager to each of the offences.
She outlined how police on patrol happened upon a male, wearing a balaclava and carrying “two empty 25 litre jugs.”
“He admitted that he had been spreading the manure over the roads to disrupt the Pride Parade,” the officer told the court, adding that the lock knife was found in his pocket when Mr Adams was searched.
Mr Adams, the court heard, “freely admitted” that he intended to disrupt that Pride Parade due to be held later that day and during formal police interviews, the teenager told police “he was not the only person involved.”
The farmer told police he had filled four or five, five gallon jugs with “hen litter waste” from his family farm “and described it as a prank.”
Regarding issues of bail, the officer said Mr Adams has no criminal record.
District Judge Peter King heard the clean-up operation cost £788.
Freeing Mr Adams on his own bail of £500 and adjourning the case to July 24th, the judge imposed several conditions.
A 20-year-old man who was also arrested in connection with the incident has been released on police bail and is due to appear in court in November.
