Man jailed for deliberately ramming police vehicle

Ryan McLaughlin was sentenced at Londonderry Crown on Thursday

A man has been jailed for two years for ramming his car into a police vehicle during a series of dangerous driving offences.

Ryan McLaughlin, 29, from Bligh's Gardens in Londonderry, admitted driving dangerously in the Shantallow area of the city on 11 August 2024.

He also pleaded guilty to having drugs and a machete, resisting arrest, failing to stop and driving without insurance on the same date.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC told Londonderry Crown Court on Thursday that there was a need for deterrent prison sentences for defendants who drove dangerously to avoid being arrested.

Machete and knife found

The court was that McLaughlin drove his vehicle at a police car in Glenabbey Crescent, narrowly missing the vehicle.

The police activated their emergency lights to signal for McLaughlin to stop but he sped off.

Half an hour later, the police found the car parked at Ederowen Park, in Galliagh.

When an officer attempted to open the front passenger door, McLaughlin again drove off, mounting a grass verge.

The court was told that one of the police vehicles searching for McLaughlin was stationary at the Racecourse Road roundabout when the defendant rammed it.

This caused the police vehicle to career into the middle of the roundabout.

The defendant then continued past on the footpath, driving towards Racecourse Road while repeatedly sounding his horn.

Police found the vehicle abandoned on Racecourse Road and saw McLaughlin at a distance running towards Cornshell Fields, on the outskirts of Shantallow.

Police searched the car and found a number of items, including a large machete with the defendant's fingerprint later identified on it, a Stanley knife, and a small quantity of drugs sitting on the driver's seat.

Jailed and disqualified from driving

The court was that once police located McLaughlin, he resisted arrest by being aggressive and obstructive, requiring limb restraints to be applied.

A prosecutor said McLaughlin denied all knowledge of his offending when interviewed and claimed he was walking to his girlfriend's home "when the police jumped on top of him".

He denied the drugs were his and said he had never seen the machete before.

McLaughlin was jailed for two years and disqualified from driving for 18 months.