Another week of loyalist violence

A Catholic man is recovering in hospital after being beaten and robbed by a gang of loyalists who daubed ‘Taigs Out’ in his north Belfast apartment.

He was returning to his home after spending Easter Monday with friends when he was attacked by the three men who were waiting for him.

Mr McAllister’s mobile telephone and money were stolen during the attack.

The victim said he was too scared to return home and would stay with his family until he found alternative accommodation.

“I thought they were going to murder me last night,” Mr McAllister said. “I’m in pure agony.”

On Saturday morning, another man was attacked by a group of masked men armed with hockey sticks in the nearby Whitewell Road area.

The 27 year-old man from north Belfast - who did not want to be named - said that the men beat him around the knees and the shoulders with the sticks.

“When I was on the ground they began beating me around the knees and the shoulders. I managed to get up the second time and then I ran like the hammers.

“I ran into the taxi rank and just collapsed because of the running and being beaten. I was never so glad to see the taxi rank.”

Also in Belfast, a 14-year-old Catholic schoolboy escaped serious injury after he was assaulted by a gang of loyalists as he walked close to the Markets area.

Meanwhile, a County Antrim grandmother was threatened in her home and told to leave her home within 48 hours.

The Catholic woman from Ahoghill was alone in her home in the early hours and wakened to find a man standing at the bottom of her stairs shouting sectarian threats.

Nationalists in the area, particularly young Catholics in nearby Ballymena, have been subjected to a combination of police harassment and loyalist intimidation in recent weeks.

* A County Armagh man who was almost kicked to death by loyalists three years ago has launched legal proceedings against the PSNI police chief constable for negligence and breach of duty.

The brutal attack on Brian Rouse took place within sight of two closed-circuit television cameras operated by police in the staunchly loyalist town. It is close to the spot where loyalists fatally beat Portadown man Robert Hamill in April 1997 as police looked on.

* The unionist paramilitary UDA has said it has removed its east Belfast ‘brigadier’, Jim Gray, and other senior members. Gray was linked to multiple killer Michael Stone and the notorious Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair, who has feuded heavily with the mainstream UDA.

Urgent Appeal