RUC savagely beat ex-prisoner
A 29 YEAR OLD ANDERSONSTOWN MAN, Collie McCaffrey, was savagely
beaten by the RUC as he walked home with friends in the early
hours of Monday morning 7 July.
Despite being in RUC custody since the beating and having seen
three doctors the man's face was still caked in blood from a
suspected broken nose when he walked into An Phoblacht's Belfast
office at 1pm, about 12 hours after the attack.
According to the man the attack was unwarranted and he said that
the RUC man who hit him knew him as an ex republican prisoner.
``We were walking past Woodbourne RUC barracks when the RUC told
us we couldn't go along the Stewartstown Road. They had white
tape across the road to block people, but it was clear that
nothing was going on so we asked to go on. It was then the RUC
man hit me in the face''.
According to one of those with McCaffrey, the other RUC men then
laid into him, kicking him and hitting him with a baton as he lay
on the ground. They then dragged him into Woodbourne barracks
where he was again attacked in reception.
McCaffrey's friends were next assaulted as they tried to help him
and as the RUC were attacking them a woman pulled up in a car and
told the RUC she witnessed everything that happened. The three
friends only got away when a taxi driver pulled up and got them
into his cab.
McCaffrey was next brought to Lisburn RUC barracks where he was
again beaten. He was eventually charged with riotous behaviour.
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