Search icon

Music

16th May 2016

A Coleraine man allegedly ‘snapped’ after neighbour played ‘Wagon Wheel’ too many times

Nathan Carter has a lot to answer for

Ellen Tannam

A man in Coleraine has appeared in the town’s Magistrate’s Court for causing criminal damage to an apartment above his in The Elms.

Reporting for the Belfast Telegraph, Nevin Farrell wrote that Stephen John Leighton was brought to his tipping point when the flat above his own continuously played Nathan Carter’s ubiquitous version of the song Wagon Wheel.

Leighton was so incensed he stormed up a communal stairwell and said:

“If I hear Wagon Wheel one more time I’m going to break that stereo”.

Leighton then broke two windows after banging on the Nathan Carter fan’s door, and upon his arrest, later that evening in January had to be restrained after he punched a police officer.

His defence Francis Rafferty argued that there were ‘unusual circumstances’ surrounding the case.

“On the night in question and for some time beforehand he had been tortured. He believed it was some sort of psychological torture”.

We see his point.

Leighton has not intended to break the windows, the court heard.

Whatever about your feelings on the song in question, loud repetition of it could send anyone into a severe rage-spiral.


(via YouTube/RTÉ)