EXCLUSIVE | 

Convicted thug who once turned up at court naked charged with attacking woman

Rodney Bonnes has a long list of over 71 convictions

C

Today at 16:30

A convicted thug who once turned up at court naked is facing another trip to a courtroom.

Rodney Bonnes has a long list of violent convictions in Northern Ireland and England in connection with attacks on women and police officers among others.

He is due back before in court next week charged with attacking and harassing a woman.

The alleged offences happened in July 2021.

He is also charged with possession of cannabis in February of this year.

The case was mentioned briefly at Derry Magistrates Court this week and was adjourned until tomorrow.

Court documents indicate Bonnes will be pleading guilty to the offences.

The 38 year-old, who has an address in Glasgow, is certainly no stranger to the courts.

In April 2014, he was involved in a bizarre episode after he was arrested for breaching bail conditions.

He had been released on bail after being charged with assaulting a woman in a Derry pub.

However, while on patrol, officers spotted him urinating at Sackville Street in Derry’s city centre.

The officers spoke to him and told him that as part of his bail conditions he was not to be intoxicated in a public place.

Bonnes was asked to perform a preliminary breath test but would not blow into the breathalyser.

A court report from the time stated Bonnes refused to enter the police car and shouted threats and swore at police.

Members of the public who appeared to know Bonnes asked him to co-operate but he did not heed them and became extremely aggressive, kicking at police officers’ heads and causing “considerable damage” to a police car.

Bonnes continued to struggle violently and had to be put in limb restraints by police. He then spat twice at a police officer, spattering mucus and blood across his face.

A face mask was put on Bonnes to prevent further spitting but, according to the report, he “ate” the face mask.

Throughout the night in the police cell, Bonnes became increasingly agitated and appeared to be under the influence of another substance other than alcohol.

Bonnes then urinated and defecated in three police cells, smearing faeces over the walls, ceilings, bunks and cameras.

When told he was going to court, he refused to get dressed and said that he “wished to go in front of Judge McElholm in his soiled state”.

He refused to put on clothing or wash and came to the court naked.

Bonnes only got dressed before he was led up from the court holding cells to the dock.

His bail was revoked and a few weeks later, Bonnes was jailed for two years for assaulting the woman in the pub.

During the unprovoked attack in August 2012, Bonnes, without warning, grabbed the woman in the bar and head-butted her.

She fell to the floor and he continued to assault her by kicking her and punching her. He also dragged her about the floor by the hair.

Bonnes’ girlfriend pulled him away but he returned to the victim who was lying helpless on the floor and kicked and punched her again.

The victim sustained a swollen nose and swollen cheeks and multiple bruises.

Bonnes also assaulted two police officers and resisted arrest outside the pub.

The court was told Bonnes had at that stage 71 previous convictions, 21 of them for assaults and three for threats to kill.

One of those convictions involved an attack during which Bonnes smashed a glass bottle over a man’s head in York.

The victim was walking to a friend’s house at about 3am at the end of a night out in October 2005 when Bonnes, who was then aged 20, jumped him from behind.

Bonnes and an unknown accomplice then robbed the man.

A court was told the two robbers were strangers to each other who had only met that evening, and that the other man had suggested they go and rob someone.

Bonnes had been drinking and taking drugs and had threatened to take his life a few hours earlier by jumping off a warehouse roof.

The court heard Bonnes has previous convictions in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland for robbery and violence.

His barrister claimed he had fled to England to escape paramilitary threats.

Judge David Bentley told him: “You may have been in a lot of trouble in Northern Ireland, but you are not in Northern Ireland now, you are in England, and we expect people here to behave decently and not indulge in the type of violence you indulged in.”