UDA victim attacked again

A Coleraine man was set upon by loyalists on Wednesday night just yards from the spot where he was left for dead in a previous UDA attack which killed his friend, Kevin McDaid, in May.

Damian Fleming, who suffered a broken nose, cuts to his face and bruising to his head in the latest attack, fears that loyalists will target him again.

Father-of-four Kevin McDaid died after he was beaten alongside Mr Fleming in May and eleven men have to date been charged in connection with those attacks.

The 46-year-old has only recently been released from hospital where he had been in a coma after suffering serious head injuries.

Speaking last night he said he believed his attackers had been waiting for him on Wednesday night.

“I was walking home and was checking my keys and a car pulled up.

“Two men got out and one stayed in the car and kept the engine going. They kicked the gob out of me.

“I think one had a stick, my shoulder will show that. It’s bruised. I have a broken nose and bruising around my head. It’s painful.

“I was semi-conscious. I think they were watching me to be honest. I was on my own. They used my name and said ‘Fleming, you Fenian b*****d’.”

Mr Fleming said he should be allowed to “walk the streets like anyone else”.

“I have felt unsafe lately. I had a good idea this might happen and I’m sure it’s not finished yet.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that a cousin of Mr McDaid’s, who was injured in the May 24 attack, had received another death threat.

Peter Neill from the Heights said that it was the fifth such warning from the PSNI that loyalist paramilitaries “are actively seeking to take some form of action against” him.

More than twenty people in the town have now received loyalist threats following the murder of Mr McDaid.

Sinn Fein Councillor Billy Leonard spoke of the need to challenge sectarianism within the Coleraine area following what he said was “an appalling second attack” on Mr Fleming.

“I have spoken to his family and Damien is left both shaken and very upset. Fortunately his injuries are not as severe as they were in the previous attack on him.

“For this to happen at all is totally unacceptable, but to happen to a man who was left in a coma following an earlier sectarian assault and for him to be be deliberately targeted is beyond belief.

“Strident efforts to tackle the sectarianism within Coleraine need to be made before we have another victim and another tragedy on our hands.”

Urgent Appeal