Republican News · Thursday 7 March 2002

Plastic bullet fired in Wales

BY FERN LANE

A plastic baton round has been fired for the first time by a British police force outside the Six Counties.

On Wednesday 27 February, 30-year-old Steven Myers, who was armed with a knife, was shot in the abdomen by an officer from the North Wales Police force during a domestic disturbance in Old Colwyn, near Llandudno. He was taken to hospital suffering from bruising and possible internal bleeding. He was released on Friday and remanded in custody by Llandudno magistrates on Saturday 2 March, charged with making a threat to kill, affray and criminal damage.

The use of plastic baton rounds outside the Six Counties was approved by British Home Secretary Jack Straw in June 2001 after the introduction of a new, modified version of the weapon, said by the government to be less lethal than the old version. That model was used almost exclusively by the army and the RUC on the nationalist population in the north of Ireland, resulting in 17 deaths - including seven children - and countless horrific injuries. The new version is also used almost exclusively on the nationalist population.

However, the claim that the new baton round is safer than the old was clearly contradicted by the government's own research into the matter. An internal report early last year revealed that injuries caused by the new L21A1 version, which replaced the old L5A7 round, were potentially even more lethal due to its modified shape, velocity and material. The report concluded that "The severity of injuries to the brain is likely to be greater with the L21A1, due to the higher pressures on the brain, and greater penetration of the projectile... If the L21A1 does contact the head, and if it strikes perpendicular to the skull ('head on'), there is a risk that the projectile will be retained in the head. For glancing blows, there is not likely to be a difference in this respect between the L5A7 and the L21A1."

Jack Straw, in announcing the new baton round on 2 April last year said that its use would be strictly controlled and restricted to "situations of public disorder". It is not clear whether the incident in north Wales fell into that category. In the six counties, of course, the British Army has consistently refused to make its own guidelines for the use of plastic bullets public. Unlike the RUC and other British police forces, the army's use of the weapon is not subject to investigation.

The day after the shooting of Myers, Deputy Chief Constable Bill Brereton defended the use of the baton round, saying that Myers was "lucky to be alive", his life having been "effectively saved" by its use as he would otherwise have been shot with live ammunition. The British police force has an unfortunate record in situations such as this; on average around one third of all those shot and killed are unarmed.

This development will no doubt cause serious concern to those who have been campaigning for an end to the use of plastic baton rounds. Apart from the lethal nature of the weapon, one argument has been that it had heretofore only been used in the Ireland, no matter how serious the disturbance in England or Wales. Now that the British police have broken their duck, as it were, the government will no doubt point to the north Wales incident to shore up their argument for the retention of the weapon.