Drug driver put back behind bars after attacking victim he blamed for losing dog
Christopher McGregor once told the Sunday World he was the victim of a sectarian hate campaign when he lived in Kells, Co. Antrim.
This is the thug jailed last week for attacking a man he blamed for getting his dog taken away by the dog warden.
Christopher McGregor, who has a shocking criminal record already despite being just 23 years old, punched the man repeatedly in the head in a shocking attack which he claims was over losing his dog.
But after that attack the Antrim thug launched another even more serious attack on the same man after inviting him to his house where he headbutted him and punched him several times again.
And we can reveal McGregor once told the Sunday World he was the victim of a sectarian hate campaign when he lived in Kells.
In 2022 he claimed he and his then partner where repeatedly targeted by a loyalist hate mob who called him sectarian slurs and torched their home – forcing them to flee the Co Antrim village.
However the Sunday World can reveal McGregor had fallen foul of a crime family.
Last August McGregor's flat was burned out by members of that crime family in a direct warning to him.
Christopher McGregor. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
And earlier this year he was jailed for five months after cops caught driving while off his face on drugs after nearly hitting several vehicles – in fact when they stopped him his lips had a substance on them.
Now he's back behind bars for two attacks on the man he reckons shopped him to the dog warden and got his pooch lifted.
A source told the Sunday World this week: 'Chris McGregor is a total scumbag and Antrim is glad to see the back of him for a few months but he'll be back terrorising people again as soon as he gets out.
'He terrorised the Springfarm estate but he had a major falling out with the (name removed).
'His flat was burnt out last year but he didn't move far away. He's always off his head on drugs and drives around off his head until he lost his licence finally.'
Last Tuesday McGregor was facing a number of assault charges and had been facing a more serious charge of possessing a 'boiled kettle' as an offensive weapon with intent to commit grievous bodily harm.
He admitted the assault charges but the kettle charge along with a number of other charges were withdrawn.
Court News NI reported how McGregor, from Barra Street, appeared at Antrim Magistrates Court sitting in Ballymena where he pleaded guilty to assaulting the man on April 8 and then assaulting him again the next day.
Christopher McGregor. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
News in 90 Seconds - June 11th
Appearing at court via video link from prison, he listened as a prosecutor explained how around 4pm on April 8 the thug sent a text to the other male 'attempting to arrange a fight' because, according to the barrister, the defendant had blamed the male 'for his dog being confiscated by the dog warden'.
The defendant met the male in the Townparks area of Antrim and forced him to the ground, punching him multiple times to the head leaving him bruising to the eye. The fight was broken up by McGregor's mum.
McGregor contacted the male again, inviting him up to his house, and again assaulted him, punching him multiple times and headbutted him leaving him with a bloodied nose and bumps and bruises to the head.
He had also been accused, on April 9, of possessing a 'boiled kettle' as an offensive weapon with intent to commit grievous bodily harm; assaulting a woman; 'threatening or abusive' behaviour; making a threat to damage property and attempted criminal damage to a car dashboard but those charges were withdrawn by prosecutors.
Regarding assaulting the male, a defence barrister said McGregor, who has a significant record, accepts he had 'acted over and above what he should have done'.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said they had been 'nasty assaults'.
He said one assault was bad enough but the aggravating feature was that he assaulted the male the next day and jailed McGregor for four months.
In October 2022 McGregor told the Sunday World he was an innocent victim of a sectarian hate mob.
He said he was run out of town by sinister elements connected to loyalist paramilitaries – all because he was Catholic.
At one stage a wheelie bin was placed at the front door of the house where they lived and set on fire.
'If it wasn't for the alarms we would have burned to death,' Christopher told us back in 2022. 'There was only one door in or out and we were at the top floor.'
McGregor described how he and his partner, who he's no longer with, suffered a hate-filled sectarian campaign.
'I was called a Fenian bastard on the street. I was told f**k off you Fenian bastard,' McGregor said.
'The irony is my Da was in the British Army but people like that don't understand.'
He said their home was repeatedly and relentlessly targeted to the point they were forced to leave and ended up having to stay in an old caravan with neither a cooker nor a toilet.
Christopher McGregor's flat was burned out.
'Every single day there was an attempted burglary,' he said.
'They put a brick through the window and, in the end we had to barricade the windows.'
'I went to a cash machine in the town and was told f** k off you Fenian bastard. There was graffiti on the door that read 'dirty stinking Fenians'. We never slept.'
And he said there were the phone calls where the caller would warn they were coming to get them.
When they returned to their flat they found it ransacked – what belongings they left behind were strewn across the floor, furniture and plates smashed.
In 2023 he pleaded guilty to charges of setting fire to a property occupied by Polish people. He also admitted burglary, theft and causing property damage and was jailed for eight months.
He'd gone to the property and stole the fridge, cooker and washing machine – all of which were discovered in McGregor's house.
They also found spray cans which had been used by him to spray racist graffiti on the walls of the house before he set the property on fire.
His defence barrister claimed he was 'struggling with alcohol and drug problems, which caused him to behave irrationally'.
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