A CO Armagh man man today admitted shining a laser at a police helicopter.
Standing in the dock of Craigavon Magistrates Court, 27-year-old Sean McKenna admitted that he shone a laser at a “PSNI Air Support Unit helicopter, which was moving or was ready to move, and the laser dazzled or distracted, or was likely to dazzle or distract, a person with control of the vehicle.”
McKenna, from the Kilwilkie Road in Lurgan, also admitted a charge of using disorderly behaviour at Filbin Crescent in Lurgan on 9 February this year.
None of the facts were heard but a police constable told a previous court that at 6.30pm, a police patrol on the Kilwilkie Road had a laser shone on one of their teams.
At 6.45pm a police helicopter which was providing cover over the area said there was a green laser shone at the aircraft.
She said a suspect wearing a black jacket with a reflective stripe on it was spotted and officers said he seemed to throw something away and when he fell on a grass area, he dropped a mobile phone which police seized.
The court heard that McKenna was arrested at a house where the people didn’t know him but they brought him in because he was claiming to have an asthma attack
In court today District Judge Bernie Kelly adjourned passing sentence until a pre-sentence probation report had been completed and freeing McKenna on continuing bail, ordered him to come back to court on June 5.
