Irish Republican News · September 28, 2023

PSNI’s disinterest in intimidation of pensioner

A loyalist who sprayed ‘UVF’ in the flat of a terminally-ill woman has been issued a warning by the PSNI police who have refused to action the matter as a hate crime.

The workman daubed ‘UVF’ with a glue gun in her bathroom. She lives in a facility for the elderly on the Falls Road in west Belfast.

The shocked woman, who has lost relatives to the unionist paramilitary murder gang, was left in greater distress after being told the PSNI had dealt with the matter as a low-level offence via a ‘Community Resolution Notice’.

Louise Quinn, who is 64 years old, told Belfast Media: “I was getting some maintenance work done in my bathroom, which needed a joiner and a plumber. I asked the joiner not to cover up a space in my bathroom as I was going to use it for a stack and storage area. The plumber left and the joiner stayed behind to finish up.

“I went in to see how he was getting on and he had fitted wood over the space I was going to use.

“He left and I removed the bit of wood I had asked him not to put up and that’s when I saw ‘UVF’ written on it with the glue gun. I was shocked and then angry and then everything started coming back to me.

“It wasn’t just my family who lost loved ones in the Troubles, but I lost family in McGurk’s Bar and also one who was an unclaimed victim of the Shankill Butchers. When I saw UVF it all came flooding back.”

Louise explained that she reported the incident when another workman came over to repair a door handle. He was appalled at seeing the graffiti and informed his bosses. Louise said she then informed her son and a complaint was made to the PSNI.

“When I reported it to the police they came round and said it was an incident but not a crime because I didn’t own the wood he had graffitied on. I said it was intimidation in my own home.

“I said that UVF isn’t just a name to me, it expands out and covers very traumatic things which have happened in my life. They said it wasn’t a crime but an incident. I said of course it was crime, it was intimidation and he has brought a lot of anger into me which has affected my health.”

The PSNI said it had received a report of “criminal damage” and had responded by issuing a man in his 60s with a Community Resolution Notice.

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