Public disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland town Ballymena after alleged sexual assault
Public disorder broke out in Ballymena in Northern Ireland, with police saying a number of missiles had been thrown towards officers after crowds gathered near the site of an alleged sexual assault in the town.
The unrest follows a protest in the area, about 30 minutes's drive from the capital city of Belfast, earlier on Monday evening, the police statement said, adding damage had been reported to a number of properties.
Police advised motorists and pedestrians to avoid the Clonavon Road area and said they would remain on the scene to monitor the situation.
'We are urging everyone to remain calm and to act responsibly,' said
chief superintendent Sue Steen. 'Violence and disorder will only place people at greater risk. Our priority is to keep the community safe, and I would appeal to everyone to work with us to bring calm to the area as quickly as possible.'
Local media reported people with their faces masked were seen throwing masonry and a police car had two of its windows smashed.
Protesters gathered after two boys appeared in court after an alleged serious sexual in Clonavon Road, media reported.
On Sunday, police announced that detectives investigating a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the Clonavon Terrace area of Ballymena had charged two teenage boys.
With Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
38 minutes ago
- The Sun
Ballymena riots which left 15 cops injured branded ‘racist thuggery' with major op to stem new chaos after boys in court
A MOTHER who lives in one of the houses attacked during violence in Ballymena said she had been left too scared to stay in the area. The mother-of-three said her children were asking why their house was being attacked during disturbances in the Co Antrim town on Monday night. 5 5 5 Her comments come after homes were destroyed and missiles were thrown at police by masked thugs last night in "disturbing scenes" as rioting broke out after a protest in the area. Several properties were damaged on Clonavon Terrace in attacks which police have described as 'racist thuggery'. The violent scenes in the area left 15 police injured and a number of cops cars damaged. The violence followed an earlier protest in support of the family of a girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in the town at the weekend. Two 14-year-old boys appeared in court on Monday charged with attempted rape. The charges were read to the teenagers by a Romanian interpreter. A 28-year-old man was also arrested by police as part of the investigation on Monday evening, but has since been 'unconditionally released' from custody. The PA news agency spoke to a number of residents of houses in the street on Tuesday who said they now intended to leave the area. The woman, who said she was too afraid to give her name, said she tried to flee her house after the front window was broken. She said: 'The children were asking me why are we being attacked. 'I don't want to stay here now, the children are afraid and I am afraid.' 'POGRAM PREVENTED' In the aftermath of the rioting, the chairman of the Police Federation said the actions of PSNI officers saved lives and 'prevented a pogrom with consequences too painful to contemplate'. Liam Kelly, the head of the group that represents rank and file PSNI officers, said cops faced attacks which were 'totally mindless, unacceptable and feral'. Mr Kelly said: 'Once again, our colleagues were caught up trying to quell hate-filled violence on our streets. 'Officers who were trying to protect life and property came under unjustified sustained attack. 'All right-minded people should utterly condemn these actions and provide information and assistance to the PSNI so they can identify those who engaged in the various lawless acts of thuggery. 'Officers' injuries tell a frightening story of a mob fully intent on inflicting great harm on people. 'Police officers worked tirelessly to defuse a potentially explosive situation and uphold the law.' 'MINDLESS VIOLENCE' Mr Kelly said the officers had suffered 'for their courageous and professional interventions'. He added: 'This was mindless violence and thuggery. 'Officers were under great pressure but, to their credit, they restored order over a prolonged period of unrest. 'I have no doubt whatsoever that police officers – far too few because the service is starved of resources and officer numbers – prevented a pogrom with consequences too painful to contemplate. 'What we saw was totally mindless, unacceptable and feral. 'I wish to commend the men and women of the PSNI who undoubtedly saved lives last night. "I would appeal for calm, and request that there is no repeat of these shocking images in the town or the lawless acts of intimidation of anyone in our community." 'FELT FEAR' PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the force would have a significant operation in place over the coming days in case there was any repeat of the disturbances. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the attacks should be 'loudly condemned by all right thinking people'. Speaking at a press conference at Ballymena police station, he said: 'Any attempt to justify or explain it as something else is misplaced." He said that members of the minority ethnic community 'felt fear' and there will be a significant policing operation in the town in the coming days to reassure the community. 'All right-minded people should utterly condemn these actions and provide information and assistance to the PSNI so they can identify those who engaged in the various lawless acts of thuggery." Liam Kellychairman of the Police Federation He said one arrest has been made and more will follow, as video and online footage is examined. The 29-year-old arrested has been charged with riotous behaviour, disorderly behaviour, attempted criminal damage and resisting police. He is due to before Ballymena Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Mr Henderson said: 'I would strongly urge anyone who was involved in yesterday's disorder to reflect long and hard about their actions, they will have consequences." VIOLENT SCENES Mr Henderson said that police officers from England and Wales will be brought to Northern Ireland if needed to help the PSNI in the wake of the Ballymena disorder. He said: 'Should I need any additionality, I'm absolutely assured that my colleagues in policing in England and Wales, the National Police Operation Centre, stand fast and ready to support should we need that support.' The senior officer said police did not have specific intelligence that there would be a repeat of the violent scenes, but said a significant policing operation would be in place. PLANNED VIGIL A PSNI spokesperson said: 'At around 7.30pm, a planned vigil gathered in the Galgorm Road area before making its way towards Larne Street, onto Wakehurt Road and then down Queen Street. 'The vigil was initially peaceful as it made its way towards the Clonavon Terrace area of Ballymena. 'Officers were present at the vigil to ensure an appropriate and proportionate policing response, due to the large number of people who had gathered in the area. 'A number of masked individuals then broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties in the Clonavon Terrace area. 'Elements of the crowd then turned on to police and attacked officers with petrol bombs and masonry. 'This disorder was sustained and continued in the vicinity of Galgorm Street, Linenhall Street and Larne Road Link in the vicinity of the Braid.' COPS ATTACKED The statement added: 'Police officers came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, fireworks, heavy masonry and bricks thrown in their direction by masked rioters. 'Fifteen officers were injured with some requiring hospital treatment. 'Two police vehicles were also damaged during the disorder. 'A number of homes and businesses were damaged with windows and doors smashed. Four houses were damaged by fire with three people evacuated. 'The attacks on these properties are being investigated as racially motivated hate attacks. 'Windows were also smashed of several business units in Galgorm Parks in the early hours. 'In total, six properties in Clonavon Terrace have sustained damage to windows and doors during the disorder." OTHER ARSON As part of ongoing inquiries, police are also investigating a report of arson at the Tobar Park area of Cullybackey in the early hours of Tuesday. Shortly after 12.20am, it was reported that a petrol bomb had been thrown at a vehicle in the area which set it alight. Damage was caused to a nearby property, with a woman and two children inside. 5 5
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Woke police chiefs whinge about underfunding when the real problem is their warped priorities
Readers of this newspaper will, throughout its long history, have been among the most ardent supporters of the police. We are traditionally pro law and order and take a dim view of rotters. It feels like that time is well and truly over. Monday's main Telegraph story, in advance of Wednesday's spending review by Rachel Reeves, which reported the concerns of senior officers that the police service is 'broken' and that underpaid and overworked personnel are leaving in droves because of funding cuts, attracted well over two thousand comments. They ranged from 'Diddums' to 'It's all your own stupid fault' with a good deal of colourful hostility in between. Honestly, you would struggle to find more derogatory remarks among the police's long-running foes at The Guardian. I noticed a similarly unsympathetic reaction a week ago when Met chief Sir Mark Rowley protested that police would have to choose which crimes to investigate if they didn't get more cash. As if the public, until now, had enjoyed a superb and rapid response to its burglaries, muggings, car, bike and phone thefts and our town centres positively thrummed with the purposeful presence of bobbies on the beat. 'Yes, Sir Mark, times must really be hard if you can only send six officers to arrest a retired police volunteer over a single tweet,' sneered one disgruntled taxpayer, perfectly capturing the mood of seething resentment. This collapse in trust is as precipitous as it is shocking. A widespread feeling has clearly taken hold that police are no longer doing the job we expect them to do, while interfering in things that are none of their damn business. The story of the London couple who were obliged last week to 'steal back' their own car after being told by police they did not know when they would be able to investigate thieves who took the Jaguar away on a flat-bed truck (but do call 101 if you find it, they were told) presents a snapshot of a frustrated public having to take the law into their own hands like a group of extremely polite, Emma Bridgewater-owning vigilantes. While many physical crimes go largely ignored, activist constabularies are doing a roaring trade in online offences. The preposterous yet sinister non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), an Orwellian development of the College of Policing back in 2014, are frequently cited by police critics, as is the clampdown on free speech which is increasingly used to suppress popular discontent about things like the annual £4.7 billion bill to keep migrants in hotels and look after them. Those of us who, for some strange reason, think it's outrageous to spend the equivalent of every single penny in tax paid by the population of Manchester on accommodating tens of thousands of young males who broke into our country, used to be called 'racists'. But I see we have got a promotion, ladies and gentlemen. According to Prevent [a counter-terrorism programme], we are no longer racists, we are 'terrorists'! If we dare to express doubts about uncontrolled immigration and lack of integration, that is. That's the same Prevent which failed to prevent Axel Rudakubana slaughtering a dance class of little girls. And which, according to a 2023 report by Sir William Shawcross, concentrates too much on the largely mythical 'far Right' and not enough on Islamist terror. The College of Policing, I am reliably informed, encourages the same delusional appeasement of the group which poses by far the biggest threat to our national security. The criminalising of the white indigenous population, running in parallel to the woke appeasement of actual criminals, goes some way to explaining this new cordial loathing of the police, I think. Unbelievably, over 60 of our fellow citizens are slapped with an NCHI every single day for 'hateful' thoughts or conduct, many of them Monty Pythonesque in their absurdity. While senior police moan about Home Secretary Yvette Cooper not winning them a big enough payout in the spending review, there seem to be adequate funds to arrest and stigmatise law-abiding people. Only this week, I got a very worried email from a reader, Carolyn, who had complained to the police about a man who has been camping for several weeks in the park where her children play. The surrounding area stinks of urine and faeces and there are scattered remnants of drug use. When Carolyn and other mums walk past they have seen the man put his hand down his trousers to play with himself. The camper's appearance suggested to her that he was an African migrant. 'Using the term 'migrant' therefore did not strike me as anything other than a fair assumption,' says Carolyn. Uh-oh. Obviously, in the bonkers world of PC policing it will now be the anxious lady who complained about a threat to her community who is warned about causing trouble. 'It would seem that any offence caused to me is secondary to the offence of Hate Crime,' Carolyn says. Correct. An officer emailed Carolyn to say that police did not have the powers to remove the tent from the park. 'With regard to the hand down the trousers,' he said, 'Many people from all different backgrounds do this as a cultural/social trend and have done for a while, we often see members of the public doing this all around the city. We will speak with him about this though and advise him of the perception this could cause. I also suggest you reframe (sic) from referring to him as a 'migrant' and making comments about 'Are we paying him to take the proverbial out of us all?'… These can be seen as derogative (sic) terms and possibly a hate crime, especially when you probably know nothing about him.' If you seek a perfect illustration of why the police service is 'broken' and officers are deserting in droves, look no further than this jaw-dropping inversion of good and bad guys. Intimidating man from alien culture seemingly exposing himself in public and peeing, crapping and doing drugs where your kids play? Completely fine, culturally appropriate, nothing to be done about it. Englishwoman suggests the man is a 'migrant' who is taking advantage of our absurdly generous system? Oh dear, oh dear – your hurty words will be taken down, Madam, and used in evidence against you. Now, it's a fair bet that many of the public-spirited young people who aspire to become police officers still think it is Carolyn's side they should be on. A rookie error, I'm afraid. 'Recruits who join the force don't realise the police are so captured,' a senior source tells me. Officers now lack maturity and experience Police retention has been a problem for a long time. It's got much worse since the higher echelons subscribed to the anti-white Critical Race Theory and adopted a witless, Leftist ideology that would have been abhorrent to their predecessors. The number of resignations in the police started to exceed the number of retirements nationally around 2023. What this means in practice, as I was told after Essex Police came to my own door on Remembrance Sunday, is that many officers now lack the experience and maturity to make common-sense decisions and bin spurious allegations of racial hatred that flatter the identity-politics obsessions of their superiors. 'It's not uncommon for uniform shifts to be about 50 per cent probationers, and they might be running with an acting sergeant barely out of his probationary period (two years) in some cases,' warns my source. The Conservatives' decision, in 2020, to lower the application age to 17 (to join at 18) as part of their training means that a lot of young people without much life experience, who don't know what they're letting themselves in for, find policing a nasty shock to the system. Once they're in, probationers have to cope with complicated, badly-designed computer systems that add hours to already heavy workloads. They have very little time to conduct inquiries and pick up more and more stressful cases, meanwhile having to deal with the aggressive, ever-more-volubly-entitled, human-rights-aware dregs of our society. After all that, if you can still muster the courage to be a first-class constable who fiercely defends the public against wrong 'uns but swears a bit and leaves violent offenders feeling they weren't treated with enough dignity then expect your Pontius Pilate of a chief constable to throw you under the Hurty Feelings bus. That is exactly what happened to Lorne Castle, a Dorset officer who has twice won a national bravery award, including one for rescuing an elderly woman from a swollen river in 2023. A shameful betrayal The 46-year-old father of three was dismissed without notice for gross misconduct after bodycam footage captured him trying to arrest a teenager who was believed to have assaulted an elderly man (the boy, who later turned out to be carrying a knife). If you watch the footage, you can experience the frightening, febrile atmosphere in which Lorne Castle was trying to carry out his thankless task. He shouted and swore, telling the lad: 'Stop resisting or I'm going to smash you.' A veteran officer tells me that 'it looked like a good arrest'. But a panel found PC Castle did not treat the teenager with 'courtesy' or 'respect', and Dorset Police said 'his shouting, swearing, finger pointing, taking hold of the boy's face and throat and suggested use of leg restraints was not necessary, reasonable or proportionate'. The force said no further action was taken against the teenager – of course it wasn't! – but he was issued with an out of court disposal for possessing the knife. I ask you, why would anybody risk phone seizures, suspensions and months of stress over complaints that usually turn out to be baseless but which see them treated like criminals? While clueless top brass in their woke ivory towers put saving their career before protecting their officers. In my book, a man of the calibre of Lorne Castle is worth more to the people of this country than every chief constable put together. So let us hear no more whingeing about underfunding leading to reduced services and driving officers away. Blame a warped sense of priorities promoted by activist police chiefs, a shameful betrayal of the British bobby and the demonisation of ordinary people for expressing legitimate fears. If the police have lost the support of Telegraph readers, then they are lost indeed.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Romanian mother ‘afraid' to stay in Ballymena street after attack
A Romanian mother who lives in one of the houses attacked during violence in Ballymena said she had been left too scared to stay in the area. The mother-of-three said her children were asking why their house was being attacked during disturbances in the Co Antrim town on Monday night. Several properties were damaged on Clonavon Terrace in attacks which police have described as 'racist thuggery'. The violence followed an earlier protest in support of the family of a girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in the town at the weekend. Two 14-year-old boys appeared in court on Monday charged with attempted rape. The charges were read to the teenagers by a Romanian interpreter. The PA news agency spoke to a number of residents of houses in the street on Tuesday who said they now intended to leave the area. The woman from Romania, who said she was too afraid to give her name, said she tried to flee her house after the front window was broken. She said: 'The children were asking me why are we being attacked. 'I don't want to stay here now, the children are afraid and I am afraid.' A Romanian man said he had lived in the area for 15 years. He said: 'We don't even know why this happened to us. 'The riots started last night. We didn't expect it to come to our house. 'We tried to get out of the house and go to a safe place. 'I have lived here 15 years. Everything else has been nice, everything has been OK. 'I have so many friends in Ballymena, I have got so much support. 'Everyone was texting and asking us if we are OK, if we are safe, if they can do anything for us.' He added: 'I am lucky because the damage here is not too bad, but my sister has three kids, I have a little girl. 'We are going to live in a friend's house for a while and then try to move out of here.' He said: 'I like to believe I am a Ballymena man now, I have been living here half of my life. 'I understand if people want to protest but it did not have to be like this. 'We should not have to pay the price.'
