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Car tires slashed

A man has been sentenced to 10 days imprisonment by the Magistrates Court for damaging two police vehicles.

On the night of 1st September 2009, police officers were responding to a domestic dispute in the area of Edinburgh Estate. A marked police patrol car and a marked patrol van attended this location. After dealing with matter and on returning to their respective vehicles the officers found that the patrol car had its four tyres slashed and the van had the front left tyre slashed. The culprit had injured himself in the process leaving a trail of blood. A knife suspected to have been used to cause the damage was also recovered discarded nearby.

Enquiries carried out by police led them to the defendant Manuel Hernandez aged 22 years, a resident of Edinburgh Estate. He was arrested in the early hours of 2nd September 2009 at St Bernard’s Hospital and subsequently charged with two counts of causing damage to the police vehicles. The defendant initially refused to provide DNA samples to the police but the court ordered for hair samples to be supplied. These were sent for forensic analysis together with the samples taken from the scene and knife. A match was found which concluded positive on Hernandez.

Hernandez, who was represented by Barrister Ian Watts, then pleaded guilty to the charges on the 3rd March 2010 and was sentenced by Stipendiary Charles Pitto to 10 days imprisonment