AN Antrim man has admitted breaking into a church in the town.
Joseph Francis Lewis (43) admitted burglary of Greystone Presbyterian Church with intent to steal on December 11 last year.
While Lewis, from Rathmore Gardens, denied a further count of attempted burglary at the church on the same date, he also admitted causing criminal damage to a police cell van, assaulting a man and woman and possessing a weapon, namely a crowbar, on the Greystone Road.
It was reported at the time that there had been a break-in at the church just before 8pm and that having responded to a report of suspicious activity, police arrested a man inside.
Defence counsel Neil Moore told Antrim crown court that Lewis is "engaging with the community addiction team in Ballymena" and during an exchange with Judge Neill Rafferty QC, the defendant told him while "I'm not completely clean…it's going well".
Judge Rafferty said while he would list a provisional trial date in November, he would review the case next week and ordered a pre-sentence report.
Scheduling the plea and sentence for August 27, the judge told Lewis he had a "long summer ahead" but by the end if it, "I would really like to hear that you are the model pupil and poster boy for the Community Addiction Team".
"Believe it or not, most judges don't actually like sending people to prison," said Judge Rafferty.
"We do it because it's the right thing to do and we do it because people need to be punished but if a person can show over a prolonged period of time that they're trying to deal with the main problem, we get pretty engaged with that."