Man who damaged 14 ticket machines given suspended sentence

A man who smashed 14 Glider ticket machines as he travelled across west Belfast on the service has been given a suspended sentence.

Bernard Dorrian attacked the machine’s screens with a hammer and his fists.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court was told the 41-year-old, of Aspen Walk in Dunmurry, was seen travelling from stop to stop damaging each machine before getting back onto the Glider.

The total cost of repairing the machines attacked over a three-hour period in west Belfast was nearly £4,000.

Dorrian admitted carrying out the criminal damage to the Translink-owned machines on 28 March 2023.

Stops at the Children’s Hospital, Twin Spires, Beechmount, Casement, Upper Dunmurry and Clonard were among those attacked.

A prosecution lawyer said CCTV footage from 12 stops showed Dorrian using a “hand-held implement” and “on one occasion he was seen punching a machine with his fist”.

The machines were left unusable.

Dorrian initially denied responsibility during police interviews, claiming the CCTV footage showed someone else who looked like him.

He later pleaded guilty to criminal damage before the case reached trial.

A defence lawyer told the court his client suffered from mental illness, including auditory and visual hallucinations.

He said Dorrian had also been dealing with the break-up of a relationship and was ashamed of what he’d done.

District Judge Steven Keown expressed doubt about Dorrian’s expression of remorse.

But based on the defendant’s medical issues and eventual guilty plea, he decided not to send him to prison.

He imposed a sentence of 10 months in jail suspended for three years.

He warned Dorrian: “If there’s anything like this [in that period] you will be going into jail for a long period of time.”

The judge also ordered him to pay £500 compensation to Translink.