A man who walked for six miles to attack his step-mother in a violent rage is to be sentenced tomorrow.
Adam Doherty, 24, walked from Derry to Donegal and then broke the windows at the home of his step-mother Linda McCafferty at Moness in Burt.
Ms McCafferty had been awake with a sick child at 5am when she heard noises outside her home.
When she looked outside, Doherty was walking around with a hammer smashing windows of the house.
Doherty appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court where Garda Gary Hilfery revealed how the accused was on the rampage.
“He was shouting and swinging himself wildly and his eyes were bulging in his head. She shouted at him to stop and then she saw he had a hammer,” he said.
Ms McCafferty called her husband Damian was away in Derry at the time.
She screamed for her 16-year-old son Jake as Doherty tried to break through some broken glass and into the house.
She tried to restrain him but Doherty was trying to hit her with the hammer and then he bit down hard onto her bicep.
Her son Jake got him in a choke hold and they eventually managed to retrain him by tieing him with a belt until Doherty’s father Damian arrived.
Gardai arrived and he was taken to Buncrana Garda station after being arrested for interview. He later pleaded guilty to a range of offences including burglary, criminal damage and assault.
Barrister for Doherty, Peter Nolan, instructed by solicitor Rory O’Brien, said his client has no previous convictions but had issues with drink and drugs.
At the time of the attack, he had been living in Derry but had been evicted from the flat he was squatting in.
He had gone drinking and had his tools with him including the hammer and decided to walk to Ms McCafferty’s home up to six miles away in Burt.
He said his client had been in custody since the incident on May 16th last and required help for his addiction issues.
Psychiatric reports on Doherty were handed into court and Judge John Aylmer said he would take time to read them before deciding on the sentence for Friday at 2pm.