Duffy being ``stitched up''
Friends of Collie Duffy, the Lurgan man charged with killing two
RUC men in Lurgan last Monday 16 June, say he is being held on
the evidence of a woman they describe as ``suggestible'' who has
been pressurised into making a witness statement.
Duffy was at the centre of a miscarriage of justice case when he
was released last year after serving three and a half years for
the killing of a British soldier. He had been convicted on the
evidence of Lindsay Robb, a member of the UVF who is currently
serving ten years after being convicted of attempting to smuggle
arms from Scotland. Robb's evidence was discredited and Duffy was
released. Duffy's friends say he is once again being ``stitched
up'' by the RUC.
Meanwhile in the Kilwilkie Estate in Lurgan the crown forces have
carried out a series of raids on nationalist homes as they
continued their follow-up operations after the killing of the two
RUC members.
Local people yesterday complained to An Phoblacht that during
searches of homes the RUC were ``aggressive and abusive''.
One man whose home was targeted on Tuesday 24 June for the second
time said that ``the RUC came to my home and immediately began to
verbally abuse me''. In the course of the raid the RUC took
children's clothes that the family had bought for their holidays.
When the man's wife went to Lurgan RUC barracks to complain about
the RUC behaviour the RUC refused to deal with her.
Local Sinn Féin councillor John O'Dowd said the ongoing operation
was ``a concerted campaign of harassment against the people of
Kilwilkie''.
O'Dowd said that since the crown forces moved into the area last
Monday and threatened Jackie Scullion, who is eight months
pregnant, the tone was set.
During a raid on Ms Scullion's house the RUC refused entry to the
woman's family and threatened to shoot when her family members
pushed through an RUC cordon.
``Two people were bitten when dogs were set on a crowd that had
gathered. A woman was bitten as was a young boy when a dog jumped
at his arm,'' said O'Dowd. He added that at checkpoints operated
by RIR soldiers residents of the estate have been threatened and
told their details would be handed over to loyalists connected to
the LVF.
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