Vendetta against Duffy continues
After a vicious RUC assault on Lurgan man Colin Duffy and five
companions in the early hours of Monday morning, the RUC returned
to his home at lunchtime and arrested him.
Within hours the RUC had charged Duffy with grevious bodily harm
and issued statements through their press office claiming that
their members were attacked by a crowd of between 30 and 40
people.
The reality, though, is different. Of the people with Colin Duffy
and a number of people who were injured at the scene one woman
received four stitches to an arm wound and another suffered
severe bruising. A Portadown man, Vincent Hamill, was beaten to
the ground and set upon by three RUC men and suffered bruising,
lacerations and a broken finger. Duffy's injuries included a
badly bruised left arm which was in a sling as he appeared in
court, a cut lip, a baton mark on his left upper arm and muscle
strain.
According to Duffy's solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, ``the RUC
disregarded the witness evidence of at least six people,
preferring instead to charge Mr Duffy with the most serious
offence they could. Indeed, the RUC refused to interview these
potential witnesses''.
RUC sergeant admitted in Lisburn court on Tuesday morning that
these witnesses had not been interviewed as a ``prima facie'' case
existed.
In the early hours of Monday morning 17 November Colin Duffy
along with a number of companions left a Lurgan pub where they
had gone to celebrate the christening of Duffy's second daughter,
Sinéad, who was born three weeks ago.
RUC car at the junction of Waring Street and Edward Street
blocked the car in which Duffy and his companions were
travelling. Sonia Conlon, the driver, told An Phoblacht that the
RUC approached them and asked for their details and that they
cooperated.
``The RUC then asked us to get out of the car; one said it was
something to do with the PTA and the RUC opened the car doors.
When we got out Collie was still in the car and before he got a
chance to get out one RUC man got in and started to beat him. A
second RUC man got in the other side and hit Collie with a
baton''.
Ms Conlon says she tried to pull one of the RUC men off Collie
and he bit her finger; another RUC man behind Ms Conlon beat her
with a baton leaving her with a cut elbow requiring four stitches
and serious wrist damage.
In her statement Anne Hamill corroborated Ms Conlon's version of
events and added that one RUC woman present called her a ``whore''.
Another woman reported this same female RUC member calling her a
``fenian whore''. Ms Hamill suffered bruising to her arm, leg, her
breast and had her hair pulled.
ne Hamill's husband, Vincent, was beaten to the ground and
received a broken finger, cuts to the head and bruising to the
legs, thighs, to his upper body and shoulders.
``I don't even remember the incident ending,'' said Vincent, ``I was
so dazed and shocked''.
Sinn Fein councillor John O'Dowd said the RUC are determined to
drive Colin Duffy out of Lurgan and maintains that the RUC
ambushed him.
``After the first RUC patrol stopped Mr Duffy and his companions
other back-up units arrived almost immediately and began to beat
anyone who was at the scene. It was totally indiscriminate,''
concluded O'Dowd.
Meanwhile serious rioting which erupted in North Armagh on
Tuesday night 18 November was being attributed to nationalist
anger at the high levels of harassment levelled at them by the
crown forces.
Cars and buses were hijacked in Lurgan and Armagh City. In Lurgan
the Old Portadown Road was closed while the motorway was blocked
between Lurgan and Moira. In Armagh vehicles were set alight and
placed across Moy, Monaghan, Killyleagh and Cathedral Roads.
Solicitors in the North Armagh area are taking hundreds of
complaints about harassment An Phoblacht has been told. ``You
would never believe there is a cessation in place,'' one solicitor
said, ``the RIR and RUC are not going to stop until someone is
dead''.
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