Wrexham,North Wales - Man filmed attacking wife in Wrexham street

Published date: 19 October 2015 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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AN IRISH scrap dealer who chased and attacked his wife in Wrexham told witnesses that where he came from he could treat a woman as he wanted.

“I can drag a woman all I want. I can pull her up and down the street,” he told nightclub doormen, who contacted the police.

Michael Keenan, 53, left with his wife, Rita, and the town centre CCTV system recorded him chasing her and slapping her across the face and punching her in the stomach.

Keenan, from County Cork, admitted assault on the basis of what was shown on the CCTV footage, which was played at a special Saturday morning sitting of Flintshire magistrates in Mold.

His wife attended court to support him and his solicitor, Elspeth Kenney, said the family who had been on holiday in the UK, had been due to return home by ferry from Holyhead in the early hours of Saturday.

Their crossing had been rearranged for the early hours of Sunday but could only be rescheduled once, Miss Kenney explained.

She added that Keenan’s wife and four children, aged between 17 and 11, were without food and money and if he were sent to jail, they would be stranded in Wrexham and unable to make the journey home.

Magistrates said the assault was on a person who was vulnerable and was aggravated by alcohol.

In view of the circumstances, however, they fined Keenan £80 with £85 costs a £20 surcharge and a £150 criminal court charge.

The court heard two women approached door staff at the New York, New York bar in the early hours of Friday and said a woman was being beaten in the street.

A doorman alerted police, Keenan approached and it was then that he made the comments about treating a woman as he wanted back home.

He was told he would not get away with it in the UK and some 15 minutes later CCTV operators saw him in Chester Street.

Mrs Keenan followed him but then he turned and chased her, slapped her in the face and punched her in the stomach.

Police arrived and arrested him. He made no comment in interview.

Miss Kenney said her client had no previous convictions. The family had come for a two-week holiday in the UK in a motor home and the incident occurred while they were holidaying in Wrexham.

The couple had been out for a drink, Keenan drank whisky and it was his case, supported by his wife, that she had been continually shouting screaming at him to get back to the motor home.

He over-reacted, Miss Kenney said, lost his temper and at that stage he was caught on CCTV.

For full story see - http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/153911/holidaymaker-filmed-attacking-wife-in-wrexham-street.aspx