Portadown grandmother assaulted by RUC wins legal action
by Dan O'Neill
A Portadown grandmother assaulted by the RUC three years ago has
won damages in Craigavon court.
The woman, who is in her late fifties, was attacked whilst standing
in silent protest against an Orange march passing along the
nationalist Garvaghy Road in 1996.She suffered bruising and traumatic
stress in the RUC assault.
This is a ground-breaking case for over 200 more Garvaghy Road
residents who have launched civil cases against the RUC dating back
to the Drumcree stand-off's of 1996 and 1997. Many of those attacked
suffered serious injuries such as broken limbs and head injuries.
The RUC now face a massive damages bill, possibly amounting to as
much as 200,000 due to its ill-treatment of nationalists on Garvaghy
Road over the last three years.This bill will have to be footed by
taxpayers.
In the financial year of 1997/98, the RUC paid out nearly 1million in
damages in cases of RUC assaults or false imprisonments.Plastic
bullet cases are also included in these figures.
Meanwhile, Garvaghy Road residents spokesperson, Breandan
MacCionnaith and his family are taking legal advice after comments
made by DUP leader Ian Paisley.
Speaking to a meeting in Portadown of the DUP's youth section, the
Young Democrats, Paisley said, ``if the man who wrote out his (Mac
Cionnaith's) birth certificate had a pinch of truth, he would have
filled in his father as Satan himself.''
Solicitor Rosemary Nelson is pursuing the case with a view to taking
legal action for libel or incitement to hatred.
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