Woman flees home after state-funded body delivers threat

A woman forced from her home in a sectarian attack in Belfast has said she was told of a loyalist death threat by representatives of a so-called loyalist ‘community group’ which is funded by the Stormont administration.

According to a report by the Belfast-based Irish News, Lyndsey Millar said representatives of Alternatives NI visited her home in east Belfast shortly before Christmas and told her that her life and that of her three-year-old daughter were in danger.

Alternatives NI has received substantial funding from government agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Department for Communities, the Housing Executive, the PSNI, as well as the International Fund for Ireland.

The loyalist threat against Ms Millar followed incidents where sectarian graffiti was sprayed at her home and a physical attack on her home in which she was head-butted and her daughter was thrown down the hall.

The mother-of-three was forced to flee and spent Christmas and New Year in a Belfast hostel. Ms Millar said she also received an eviction notice from the property management after loyalists complained at “not having been consulted”.

She blames the violence on the fact that she was raised in a mixed marriage in County Antrim.

“In November graffiti went up saying ‘taigs out’ on the wall close to my house,” she said. After reporting the graffiti to Fold, Ms Millar said she was then attacked in her home less than a month later. “A man came running down and kicked my door in. He spat in my face, head-butted me and flung my child across the hall. He called me a Fenian bastard.”

Ten days before Christmas, Ms Millar said she was visited by two employees of ‘East Belfast Alternatives’.

“They told me that my life and my daughter’s life were in danger. I left and a friend had to get a police escort to pick stuff up. I still haven’t got all my stuff.”

Urgent Appeal