GERARD MCKENNA AND PAUL SHERIDAN BANNED FROM BALLYNAHINCH AND BELFAST IN SHOCK CRIME CASE

In a disturbing development, 29-year-old Gerard McKenna, originally from Belfast, has been accused of breaching a non-molestation order while incarcerated at HMP Magilligan. Although McKenna did not make an appearance at Limavady Magistrates’ Court, which convened in Ballymena on Wednesday, the charges against him were formally brought. The court heard that the alleged breach occurred on December 19 of the previous year. Specific details surrounding the incident were not disclosed during the hearing, and District Judge Peter King decided to adjourn the case until August 21, requiring McKenna to be produced in court “for attitude.”

McKenna is no stranger to the criminal justice system. He is currently serving a nine-year sentence for the abduction, sexual assault, and rape of a 12-year-old girl. His history of legal troubles extends beyond this conviction. In September 2021, he pleaded guilty to charges including harassment, breaching a non-molestation order, and persistent improper use of a telecommunications network. These charges stemmed from a series of threatening calls and messages he made to his former partner between December 2020 and April 2021. During that period, McKenna, who was on remand at the time, made over 100 calls weekly, threatening to harm her and making explicit threats such as “cut her into a thousand pieces.”

Further details of McKenna’s criminal conduct emerged during his recent trial for child rape. In April of this year, a jury heard how McKenna, along with his accomplice Paul Sheridan, 27, from Hillfoot Crescent in Ballynahinch, lured two young girls away from responsible adults on December 23, 2019. The pair provided vodka mixed with 7UP to the girls before subjecting the 12-year-old victim to a brutal rape along the Lagan towpath. The jury unanimously convicted McKenna of abducting, raping, and sexually assaulting the young girl, as well as offering her cocaine and abducting her 15-year-old friend.

Paul Sheridan, who was not tried alongside McKenna at the time due to fleeing under a paramilitary death threat, was later arrested and entered guilty pleas to charges of rape, sexual assault, and child abduction. Sheridan’s arrest followed his period of evasion, and he was subsequently sentenced at Craigavon Crown Court last October to six and a half years in prison. McKenna received a nine-year sentence at the same hearing. Both men were ordered to serve an additional three years under supervised license conditions upon their release. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has indicated plans to appeal these sentences, considering them to be unduly lenient given the severity of their crimes.