Irish Republican News · July 5, 2004

Elderly couple targeted

A Catholic pensioner narrowly escaped injury yesterday when a rock was thrown through her bedroom window by loyalists.

Mary Mallon, who is in her sixties, was asleep in the front room of her bungalow in Newry when stones were thrown through the windows of the family car and home.

Mrs Mallon said she woke to hear the car being damaged. Only the blinds prevented the boulder from hitting her as she looked out the living room window.

Stephen Mallon, who was sleeping in another room at the time, said: “My wife is lucky to be alive.

“I dread to think what would have happened if the blind hadn’t stopped the boulder.”

Mr Mallon said he believed at least two men had carried out the attack.

“After they drove off our neighbour came over and said they were shouting ‘Up the LVF’,” he said.

“Anyone can just break a window but to come and do the damage they have done, it’s obvious we were targeted.”

Sinn Féin assembly member Davy Hyland condemned the attack as “premeditated and ferocious”.

* A house and a mural in the Oldpark area of Belfast have been damaged in paint attacks.

A house was hit by three paint bombs last night in an attack blamed on tensions between rival unionist paramilitary groups, the UDA and UVF.

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