RUC put Maghrafelt children at risk
A mother of three from Maghrafelt awoke on Monday March 1to the RUC
smashing in the front door. In a statement the woman said, ``I was in
bed. I heard banging at the front door. I heard the front door being
put in, then I heard people walking about.''
The Maghrafelt mother said the previous week she had reached an
aggreement via her social worker, Mrs Reilly, with an RUC Sargeant
McDonald to pay off outstanding fines. Despite this agreement the RUC
raid the woman's house looking for the money. Reilly has since
confirmed the agreement.
Sinn Fein Assembly member John Kelly, quickly on the scene after
being phoned by the distressed mother, told AP/RN, ``the RUC intially
refused to accept the payment despite the prior agreement and her
willingness, they refused to show her the warrant which turned out to
be an arrest warrant not a search warrant, so they had no right to be
in her home or to break down the front door.''
``The female RUC officer present failed to display her number but,''
added Kelly, ``more seriously the RUC threatened to arrest the woman
on the spot and take her to the barracks, leaving the children in the
house unsupervised and distressed.''
The RUC also failed to advise her of the correct complaint channels.
ENDS
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