PSNI’s abuse of children in focus

A PSNI assault on a special needs teenager is the latest sordid chapter of police violence against children in the north of Ireland and has renewed calls for the force to be disbanded.

Eileen Mitchell took to social media to share that her 19-year old sister, Katie - who is non-verbal, autistic and has severe learning difficulties - was violently removed by police from a branch of the second-hand electronics shop CEX on December 19th (pictured).

She had wanted a £2 DVD but the sale was refused by staff at a Lisburn shop because they had closed the till.

Eileen said Katie couldn’t understand why and “became very upset, crying in the shop” but despite her parents pleading with staff to take the £2 and scan it the following day, the situation “escalated”. Her mother called the PSNI for help, only to see an armed PSNI gang assault her and drag her from the shop.

She said her sister, who has the mindset of a toddler, was left “traumatised”.

Eileen said Katie didn’t understand the situation which occurred after she spotted a DVD she wished to purchase of her favourite cartoon series Thomas the Tank Engine.

“It’s shocking, it’s like something you would have expected 20 years ago, but it’s coming into 2025 and things like this are still happening to vulnerable people,” said Eileen.

“To be honest, Katie was very traumatised over this for a long time, it was the shock of it. We don’t know what long term impact it will have, we’re scared Katie will now react if she sees a police officer when out shopping, or if she sees another one of these shops.

“I don’t think we can take her shopping in Lisburn either, it’s so traumatic for her.

“You just assume that you can call the police in a crisis, and they’ll be able to help and be aware of how to handle vulnerable people, and help the situation.”

Sinn Féin councillor Gary McCleave said he had contacted the PSNI over the incident.

“I have made contact with the PSNI regarding this incident.

“This incident highlights the importance that shops and people who work in the public sector receive appropriate training.

“I will be speaking with my colleagues who will be raising it with the policing board.”

It follows a more serious before Christmas, when a 16-year-old boy was kicked in the head by PSNI during an arrest operation in County Tyrone. The incident was recorded on video.

A youth who was recording events was “body slammed” to the ground before “knees” were placed on his head. On the recorded footage a male voice can be heard shouting “I can’t breathe”.

A spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin condemned PSNI “oppression” which they said “will surely breed resistance”.

Where state violences includes young people, it creates the conditions for a “nursery of future conflict”, they said.

“Long standing research suggests that simply being young places people in the Occupied Six Counties in an antagonistic relationship with the security forces.

“Today the RUC/PSNI in a similar situation would haul those involved into the police station and fingerprint them. Thus spreading bad feeling against them further within the Catholic Nationalist community.

“Even worse still—swinging their boot into the head of a child or another person lying prone and can be heard repeatedly saying I can’t breathe. A call sign for I am in danger. This most recent boot-boy-thuggery has been caught on camera and played throughout most media outlets in the Occupied Six Counties.

“Another incident in the never ending whirlwind of RUC/PSNI shame.”

The PSNI also recently refused to answer questions by members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee on the topic of children at the launch of a policing plan in which safeguarding was one of the main themes.

It contained no reference to police brutality, detentions and strip searching of children, particularly those from republican families, despite it being raised in a report earlier this year by the North’s Childrens’ Commissioner.

“While the responses and excuses from [the PSNI] weren’t in the slightest bit surprising, what did strike us as odd was the fact that not a single political representative on the policing board was present, not even the so-called justice minister Naomi Long, nor was there any other members of the general public.

“This confirmed to us the meeting was simply a box-ticking job, that the PSNI will continue as an unjust British police force with little to no accountability and that the next 5 years are already written without public input or interests.

“The policing board is designed for one thing only, to publicly wave a finger at the PSNI, nothing else. The board would be better sticking a middle finger up to the public then at least they’d be making an honest gesture.

“The PSNI is and always has been a dysfunctional, discredited and sectarian militia of the British state.”

Urgent Appeal