Police come under attack for fourth night in Northern Ireland
Police
have come under attack for a fourth consecutive night in Northern Ireland as disorder spread through multiple towns.
Missiles were thrown at officers after a protest in Portadown on Thursday, continuing a trend that was sparked earlier in the week in Ballymena.
It came after Northern Ireland's police chief warned 'bigots and racists' behind earlier nights of unrest in the region that his officers
will be coming after them
.
Jon Boutcher
said a young girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in Ballymena at the weekend, an incident that triggered protests that descended into violence in the Co Antrim town, had been 'further traumatised' by the rioting since Monday.
READ MORE
[
Larne violence: 'I thought Northern Ireland was past this, beyond balaclavas'
Opens in new window
]
Forty-one officers have been injured in the unrest, which had resulted in 15 arrests by Thursday evening.
Mr Boutcher, who met the girl's family earlier that day, spoke to the media in Belfast after a meeting with his oversight body, the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
'Stop this violence,' he said. 'We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully. It is not in any way a way for a civilised society to behave and it must stop now.'
He said the family was 'mortified' by the disorder.
'This girl's family and this girl want it to end. Our communities want it to end. We need it to end. So please don't come out on the streets tonight. If you do, we will police you and we will deal with you through the criminal justice system.'
After the warning, there were tense scenes in Portadown as masked individuals hurled masonry, fireworks and other objects at riot police late into the night.
Officers moved to extinguish fires set on roads while residents worked to clear debris left over from clashes in the area around Jervis Street.
Police units, supported by the presence of a water cannon, dispersed those gathered into other areas of the town towards midnight.
However, the unrest in Northern Ireland appeared of a lower intensity than scenes earlier in the week.
Some gatherings planned in other towns proceeded largely without any major disturbance by 9pm on Thursday.
A significant police presence had been deployed to Ballymena but there was no initial repeat of the violence of previous nights.
Police said a separate protest in east Belfast also ended early in the evening.
The riotous behaviour earlier in the week saw vandalism, vehicles burned and arson attacks on a number of properties across several towns.
Petrol bombs, fireworks, masonry and a hatchet were among items thrown at officers.
Police responded with water cannon, dogs and plastic baton rounds in an attempt to disperse crowds during riots in Ballymena.
Mr Boutcher said: 'I want to specifically mention the 41 police officers who've been injured. Each of those officers have put themselves in harm's way to protect our communities.
'And I want to send a very clear message to all our diverse communities: we stand absolutely shoulder to shoulder with you. We are here to protect you.
'We are your police service, and these bigots and racists will not win the day. This will be policed properly. We will deal with this, and we all know that in this room, but let's call an end to it now.'
The PSNI chief said the initial lawful and legitimate process before unrest broke out was done in a way that was responsible and empathetic to the victim.
However, he said the protest was subsequently 'hijacked' and turned into 'wanton, disgraceful criminal behaviour that is absolutely race motivated'.
The chief said the service was under-resourced and needed to be funded 'properly' rather than 'disgracefully'.
However, he said his officers would still bring people to justice: 'We've put our public order inquiry team together, we'll be releasing images of those responsible. We will be going after them.'
Mr Boutcher said 80 public-order officers from Scotland came to the region on Thursday to support policing efforts.
He described how PSNI members helped evacuate foreign national families who were hiding in attics and wardrobes in their homes in Ballymena as rioters went on the rampage on Monday.
He said the families targeted had done nothing wrong.
'They are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here and are well integrated,' he said.
'Fire Service colleagues described how they went to the scenes to stop arson attacks at those addresses, and how they, in all their years in the Fire Service, have not seen levels of violence to that level, and told me specifically and directly of the bravery, the courage of a very thin green line of police officers that without doubt, in my view, saved lives that night.'
Earlier, a judge said the courts would deal 'robustly' with those involved in the violence in Ballymena.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said that young people who got involved were risking a significant custodial sentence, as three teenagers faced rioting charges at the town's magistrates' court on Thursday.
Michael Elliot, 18, of Lanntara, Ballymena, and two youths, were the first defendants to appear in court since the sustained violence erupted on Monday.
Meanwhile, two other teenage boys who were arrested during the disorder have been released on bail to allow for further police inquiries.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn described the scenes as 'mindless racist thuggery' while Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long said it has been a 'three-day festival of hate and destruction' which needs to stop before someone loses their life.
There was an arson attack on a leisure centre in Larne, thirty minutes from Ballymena, after it was temporarily used as an emergency shelter for those in urgent need after disturbances in the town earlier in the week.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, who highlighted the use of the building in a social media post, said all those who had been staying at the leisure centre are in the care of the Housing Executive and have been moved out of Larne.
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill said Mr Lyons should resign over the post, and the leader of the opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly, SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole, said he would refer the Communities Minister to the standards commission.
Mr Benn also asked the minister to 'reflect upon his words' and 'not upon his position'.
Mr Lyons has resisted calls for his resignation and said he would 'strongly hit back at any notion' that he had publicly revealed the facility was being used to house immigrant families who had been affected by violence in Ballymena. - Press Association
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Ballymena: Week of violent attacks on Northern Ireland's small immigrant community ‘akin to 1930s Germany'
When children were evacuated from a swimming lesson at a Co Antrim leisure centre this week, they walked out to find masked men banging on the windows. The youngest fleeing the Larne complex – which had provided temporary shelter to displaced immigrants – was six-years-old. 'The fear those kids experienced going out to their families has left them traumatised,' said Danielle Hill, swim coach and Irish Olympian, who escorted the children to safety before the building was set on fire on Wednesday evening. Forty-eight hours earlier, in a terraced house 30 kilometres away in Ballymena , a mother hid her babies in the attic as rioters kicked in their door and set fire to curtains. Older children hid in wardrobes. READ MORE Outside, police were attacked with hatchets and petrol bombs by a rampaging mob. In a week that has seen violent disorder erupt across Northern Ireland , 14 migrant families have been forced to seek emergency accommodation after being burnt out of their homes. Dozens received assistance from the Housing Executive. 'Bigots and racists' were blamed by Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable Jon Boutcher for four consecutive nights of unrest. The disorder began in Ballymena on Monday evening following a peaceful protest over an alleged sexual assault . Two teenage boys appeared in court earlier that day charged with the attempted rape of a girl in the Co Antrim town. The 14-year-olds confirmed their names through a Romanian interpreter. They deny the offences. Clonavon Terrace, a street close to the town centre that faces on to the rear of Ballymena police station, resembled a war zone by Tuesday morning. It is absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 people are having to identify themselves with signs on their door — Philip McGuigan Six homes were set alight and many others were vandalised the previous evening. By teatime on Tuesday, Windows that were not boarded up along the row of former mill houses were instead filled with Union Jack flags , British royal family memorabilia, and red, white and blue bunting. Cornelia Amarei from Romania said it was the first time in her seven years living in the street that she put a Union flag in her home. 'We were told it would protect us from any more attacks,' she told The Irish Times. They were trying to keep her eight-year-old grandson, who is autistic, safe. 'He needs routine so we can't move from here. We put his earphones on him at a room at the back of the house,' said Ms Amarei, who works at a manufacturing company in the town. Pre-printed black and white signs stating 'Locals Live Here' were stuck on front doors throughout the town by Wednesday evening . Social media was awash with disinformation about immigration figures and the impact on public services. One Facebook group, with more than 5,000 followers, urged people to share addresses of 'locals' they wanted to protect – and of those they wanted to target. 'It is akin to something from 1930s Germany,' said North Antrim Sinn Féin MLA, Philip McGuigan. 'It is absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 people are having to identify themselves with signs on their door.' Mr McGuigan says lies from some political parties are 'feeding into an anti-immigration sentiment' and playing on people's fears. His comments follow remarks made by the MP for the area, Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), in the aftermath of the attacks. Mr Allister condemned the violence but told the BBC that underlying tensions in Ballymena had been 'there for a long time' because there was 'an oversubscription of migrants who had been placed there'. When asked what evidence he was drawing on, Mr Allister said he had canvassed a street with 50 houses and came 'upon five local, if I can call them that, residents of Ballymena'. His statistics 'don't stack up', argues Mr McGuigan, pointing to Stormont Assembly research showing that Northern Ireland is the 'least diverse part of the UK'. Just 3.5 per cent (65,600 people) of the population are from a minority ethnic group. That compares to 18.3 per cent in England and Wales, and 12.9 per cent in Scotland, according to the Assembly report on migration. Police Scotland was asked on Tuesday and it still hasn't arrived — Jon Burrows In Ballymena, there are no registered asylum seekers in the entire Mid and East Antrim local government area, which takes in Ballymena and Larne. Of Ballymena's 24,295 population, 94 per cent of people are white, while just 6 per cent belong to other ethnic groups, according to the last census. 'Bottom line, these are not big figures,' says Mr McGuigan. 'Yes, there is a foreign national population in Ballymena, but it is there for a reason in that local industry and local businesses need people coming in to work. 'Brexit had an impact here in that businesses struggled to find workers.' To date, 63 PSNI officers have been injured in the disturbances after coming under 'sustained attack with heavy masonry and fireworks'. As of Friday afternoon, there have been 17 arrests, with three teenagers – the youngest aged 15 – refused bail and remanded in custody for riot-related offences. Of the 17 people arrested, 13 face criminal charges. Violent protests moved to Portadown in Co Armagh on Thursday, on a night when there was relative calm in Ballymena amid heavy rainfall. Police Scotland has agreed to deploy extra resources to the PSNI as part of a mutual aid arrangement. 'What the PSNI are struggling with now is any kind of spontaneity – they just don't have the resources available,' says Jon Burrows, a retired senior PSNI officer. He believes the policing arrangement only works for big pre-planned events such as the G8 summit. 'Police Scotland was asked on Tuesday and it still hasn't arrived. It could be next week – in which case the horse has already bolted,' he said. Photographic images of suspects should be released by the PSNI more quickly – ideally within 48 hours – to show that 'actions have consequences', according to Mr Burrows. I have been flooded with messages for speaking up against the racist violence — Danielle Hill The use of social media to mobilise rioters and spread disinformation should also be challenged on platforms like TikTok – as opposed to 'the PSNI website and newspapers'. Danielle Hill is determined to resume coaching at Larne Swimming Club and last night met the families of children affected by the disorder. The Olympian, who represented Ireland at the Tokyo and Paris games and took gold at the European Championships last year, has been overwhelmed by the support she has received since condemning the violence. 'As someone who swims for Ireland, who lives in a street flagged with British flags for the Twelfth [of July celebrations], I come to Larne dressed in my Olympic kit that says Ireland on my back and I've always been accepted,' she said. 'I have been flooded with messages for speaking up against the racist violence – which had nothing to do about the protection of women and girls – instead of being a bystander.' Some of the children she coaches are from ethnic minority backgrounds. One child is 'probably going to be our next [big] thing,' she adds. 'Our main mission is getting back to normal for the children's sake and rewriting the script to ensure the leisure centre is full of great memories for them. 'I met the families to help everyone come together and let them know they are not alone in this. For now, we will await our return to the pool.'
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
PSNI given emergency Stormont cash to tackle anti-immigration riots
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is to get emergency Stormont funding to cope with anti-immigration riots across Northern Ireland, First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said. Saying that a proposal for a £5 million payment will be brought quickly to the Northern Ireland Executive, Ms O'Neill said the heavily-understaffed police service was 'really under pressure and really under financial strain'. 'Keeping the public safe is an absolute priority, not just for the PSNI but for us,' she said, speaking after a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Newcastle, Co Down, that included Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Hilary Benn. However, the First Minister and her Democratic Unionist Party counterpart, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly insisted that divisions over Communities Minister Gordon Lyons would not threaten the existence, or the operation of the Executive. READ MORE Mr Lyons has been heavily criticised for a social media message about the use of Larne Leisure Centre to house Roma who were forced to flee their Ballymena homes after riots erupted this week. [ The DUP couldn't have chosen a worse moment to get tough on immigration Opens in new window ] Saying that the Executive's parties are 'all on the same page', Ms O'Neill said: 'This violent racism that we have seen on our streets has to be called out for what it is. It's absolutely wrong and it must stop.' 'What we've seen over the course of the last few days has been devastation and has been horrific for those people that have been targeted,' said Ms O'Neill, who said on Wednesday that Mr Lyons should resign. 'This is about women and children; this is about families. They have been at the front of racist, violent attacks and it is wrong on every level. I think the whole of the Executive is united on that front,' she went on. Defending Mr Lyons, Ms Little-Pengelly said her DUP colleague had been 'unambiguous' in trying to prevent violence, adding that the controversy about his remarks had been 'a distraction throughout' Thursday 'from our very clear and unified message'. Violence for four nights in a row is 'totally unacceptable', she said, adding that Mr Lyons's intention had been 'to defuse tensions' locally due to a significant amount of rumour' that had been circulating in Larne in the hours before. The calls for Mr Lyons's resignation shared by Sinn Féin, Alliance and by Stormont's only opposition party, the SDLP, hold little weight under Stormont rules, since each party controls the choice of their own ministers at the Executive table. Rioting in Larne and Portadown was 'a source of great shame for Northern Ireland', Church of Ireland Primate and Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell said. Portadown is in his diocese. 'Hiding behind the figment of `legitimate concerns' but in fact motivated by crude racism, groups of young men (and the shadowy and unaccountable people who control them) planned and carried out attacks on civil society and on democracy,' he said. With Drumcree Sunday looming on July 6th, rioting in nearby Portadown over recent nights is of particular concern. A total 22 officers were injured with two arrests made there following violence on Thursday night. The annual Orange march from Portadown to the Church of Ireland's Church of the Ascension at Drumcree became a focus for violence, particularly in the years from 1995 to 2000, when it was prevented from going through the nationalist Garvaghy Road area en route back to Portadown. The last Orange march allowed back to Portadown by that route was in 1997.
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Tattle Life gossip website operator named after couple awarded £300,000 libel damages over posts
A Co Antrim -based business couple have been awarded £300,000 (€352,000) libel damages as part of a landmark legal battle to uncover the operator of a controversial gossip website. Entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands secured the payout in a defamation and harassment lawsuit over abusive comments posted on Tattle Life. Reporting restrictions on naming the defendant companies and suspected operator of the site, Sebastian Bond, were lifted at the High Court in Belfast on Friday. In December 2023 Mr and Mrs Sands obtained awards of £150,000 in damages each, plus legal costs in mounting the action over what they regarded as a form of 'hate speech'. READ MORE It is believed to be the largest defamation payout of its kind in Northern Ireland . A series of freezing orders for more than £1 million were also made while a worldwide forensic investigation was carried out to identify the defendants and their assets. In a ruling delivered at that stage, Mr Justice McAlinden stated: 'A day of reckoning will come for those behind Tattle Life and for those individuals who posted on Tattle Life.' The online forum, which hosts threads commenting on influencers, celebrities and general members of the public, has attracted up to 12 million visitors a month. Neil Sands, a 43-year-old technology entrepreneur, and his wife Donna, 34, who runs a fashion business, sued over postings made back in February 2021. The couple claimed they had been subject to a campaign of harassment, invasion of privacy, defamation and breach of data rights. According to the judge, the site had been set up to deliberately inflict hurt and harm on others by allowing the anonymous trashing of people's reputations. 'This is clearly a case of peddling untruths for profit,' he stated. In a complex two-year legal battle undertaken at their own cost, Mr and Mrs Sands deployed advanced technological and intelligence methods as they sought to discover who was in charge of the site. The defendants can now be identified as UK national Sebastian Bond and the British and Hong Kong-registered companies Yuzu Zest Limited and Kumquat Tree Limited. Barrister Peter Girvan argued it was now beyond doubt that Mr Bond operated the site. With reporting restrictions and anonymity orders lifted, further legal efforts are now expected to focus on securing enforcement of the damages award. Speaking outside court, Mr Sands stressed the case had also been taken on behalf of others who have suffered serious personal and professional harm through anonymous online attacks. 'We believe in free speech but not consequence-free speech; particularly where it is intended to, and succeeds in, causing real-world damage to people's lives, livelihoods and mental health,' he said. 'We were in the fortunate position to be able to take the fight to these faceless operators, and it took a lot of time, effort and expense.' Solicitor Peter Barr of Gately NI, who represented the couple, detailed the scope of the global forensic investigation. 'We had to pursue the money around the world, from the UK to Hong Kong, using a mix of legal innovation and digital evidence to expose what was clearly a sophisticated effort to avoid scrutiny,' he said. 'This judgment sends a clear message that online anonymity cannot shield unlawful behaviour.'
