Irish Republican News · October 8, 2003

Family recounts night of masked loyalist terror

A Catholic family of four have told how they were forced to flee their home on the Parkhill estate in Antrim after an attack by a gang of masked unionist paramilitaries on Sunday night 5 October.

Siobhan Robb, her partner and their two young children had been inundated with bogus fast food deliveries and taxis all evening before the situation became more serious with the appearance of masked loyalists outside the house at Donegore Drive.

Shortly after midnight three masked men approached the house with iron bars and baseball bats and began smashing the downstairs windows before turning their attention to the front door, smashing it to try to gain entry,

Robb told how she looked out of the window and saw a man wearing a balaclava while another man approached the house and shouted ``You Fenian Bastard'' and began smashing up the house and the car.

``We ran into the back hall and barricaded ourselves in until the PSNI arrived.

The family have now left their home and are determined not to return.

Commenting on this latest sectarian attack on a Catholic home in Antrim Sinn Fein councillor Martin Meehan said the incident was a terrifying ordeal for the family.

``These unionist paramilitaries tried to lure members of this family outside with these bogus calls and when that failed they moved in and tried to get into the house. The fact that they tried to force their way into the house shows this was attempted murder''.

Meehan added that this is the latest in a blatantly sectarian campaign by unionist paramilitaries to intimidate Catholics from the Antrim area.

``Many nationalists will be watching closely the response of the various unionists leaderships in the Antrim area in the face of this latest attack''.

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