A 20-year-old has been handed a suspended sentence after punching a man in Regent Street in Douglas.

Adam Joseph Craig Gallagher had initially pleaded not guilty to the common assault charge, but on the day of his trial changed his plea to guilty.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes sentenced him to 14 weeks custody, suspended for two years, and also ordered him to pay £800 prosecution costs, due to preparation work done for the trial.

Gallagher was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to the victim.

The court heard that Gallagher, who lives at Marathon Drive in Douglas, was out with his partner on May 28 last year.

He said that his partner had received a number of text messages from the victim, with one saying ‘go kill yourself’.

Gallagher said this had been upsetting for them both and they had gone outside the pub they were in, for a cigarette.

He said that they had then seen the victim outside and Gallagher had confronted him about the messages.

He said that the victim was laughing and the disagreement had ended up with Gallagher punching the man.

Gallagher assessed himself as ‘six out of 10’ when asked how drunk he was at the time.

The court heard that he was subject to a suspended sentence at the time of the latest offence, imposed in February 2021 for burglary of a property in Peel and taking a vehicle without consent, and not due to expire until February 2023.

Defence advocate David Reynolds entered a basis of plea for his client, in which Gallagher reiterated that there had been a degree of provocation via the text messages in the lead up to the incident.

Prosecutor Ms Carroon said that this was accepted.

Mr Reynolds said that Gallagher had been complying well with the supervision element of his previous suspended sentence but did have issues with anger which he could continue to work on.

A probation report recommended that a new supervision order be issued and Mr Reynolds asked the court to follow the recommendation and not activate the suspended sentence.

The report assessed Gallagher as medium risk of reoffending.

The High Bailiff revoked the previous suspended sentence and replaced it with the new one to start immediately, and also made Gallagher the subject of a new two year suspended sentence supervision order.

He will pay the costs and compensation at a rate of £20 per week.