Republican News · Thursday 14 February 2002

Teenager in gun threat

A 16-year-old boy from Glengormley says he was lucky to escape with his life after he was confronted by a gunman in Glengormley last Saturday night, 9 February.

He and some friends were returning home along the Hightown Road when they saw a group of loyalists at the bottom of the road. In an attempt to avoid the loyalists, given the high level of attacks and intimidation that young Catholics from the area suffer, the group took a detour around the back of a hairdresser's.

It was as they were coming out onto the road that the youths saw the loyalists again and it seemed they were stalking them. It was at this point that one of the loyalists put his hand inside his coat and made to take out a handgun.

The young Catholics panicked and ran off. When phoned, the RUC/PSNI refused to take their story seriously. When the teenagers asked an RUC/PSNI patrol for a lift home, as they were scared to walk past the bottom of the Hightown Road, an RUC member refused saying, "we're not a taxi".

When the boy, accompanied by one of his female friends, finally arrived home, his father phoned for an ambulance given the state the pair were in. It took the ambulance over 40 minutes to get the youngsters calmed down and they were worried about the boy, who has high blood pressure.

The parents say they will lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman and are seeing their solicitor about the attitude of the RUC/PSNI.

Sinn Féin Breige Meehan said that ever since last year, when the UDA killed Trevor Lowry and Gavin Brett on the Hightown Road, the situation for Catholics has been very frightening. "Loyalists are hanging about the road and anyone who they think is a Catholic is fair game," she said. "People have no faith in the RUC/PSNI either."