Portadown attack-PSNI look on -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Tue, Dec 04 2007, 23:35:23 PST
Author: IPSC Board
Subject: Portadown attack-PSNI look on

RUC / PSNI /Provo Backed /British Controlled/ What has changed ?
Posted on November 29, 2007 at 01:14:28 PM by Sean Mac

Police in dock after attacks
http://www.portadowntimes.co.uk/news/Police-in-dock-after-attacks.3371774.jp

Victor Gordon

SERIOUS questions are being asked about the tactics of Portadown police after violence erupted in the town's Woodhouse Street on Friday night

CCTV footage of the attacks by a loyalist mob, which resulted in two Catholics and a policewoman being injured, has been sent to the Ombudsman.

The footage - viewed by the Portadown Times - shows how PSNI officers remained in a Land Rover, parked 80 yards away at the junction with Market Street, during the 10-minute attacks when the two young men were injured.
One had a bottle smashed over his head and the second was repeatedly punched and kicked and had his head stamped on.
Nationalist MLAs equated the incident with the Robert Hamill murder 10 years ago when the father-of-three died after being attacked by loyalists in similar circumstances in the town centre.

Police insisted they intervened, and have sent the CCTV footage to the Police Ombudsman "in the interests of transparency and community reassurance".
However, eyewitnesses insist the PSNI were slow to react, "despite repeated 999 calls and personal pleas for action".

CCTV footage of the Woodhouse Street rioting - viewed by the Portadown Times - clearly shows the injuries being inflicted upon three young Catholic men, and the seemingly slow reaction of the PSNI.
One young man has a bottle smashed over his head, a second is beaten to the ground and manages to wriggle free, and a third is set upon by up to 10 loyalist youths, about 50 blows rain in on him, and a youth stamps on his head.
The first youth was rushed to hospital where he had stitches inserted in cuts to his face and neck, the second was also cut to his face, and the third sustained serious bruising in various parts of his body.

The footage shows about a dozen loyalists - who it is believed had been earlier roaming the town centre - wandering down into Woodhouse Street and confronting a number of men having a smoke outside a local bar, and the trouble starts when one of the bar patrons is punched in the face.

There is a bit of a stand-off and the police are called in the meantime to sort out the trouble, and within a few minutes a Land Rover is seen driving past the bar from the Obins Street direction, but it doesn't stop and, instead, parks at the junction with High Street.
Serious In the meantime, more loyalists gather, and at this stage one of them smashes a bottle into the head of a young Catholic man, a second is beaten to the ground, and the situation goes out of control.

There is, it is reported, also rioting in the main West Street car park, with around 30 involved, and the two sides are facing each other.
Another CCTV camera shows a young Catholic man being knocked to the ground further down Woodhouse Street, eight to 10 rain loyalists down blows on him and he is stamped on the head.

The footage shows an older man walking up to police lines where, it is reported, he pleads with them to intervene. First, a police car - which had joined the Land Rover - stops outside the bar, then the Land Rover arrives, and the vehicles make for the West Street car park where there is said to be serious rioting. Eyewitnesses told the Portadown Times that the trouble broke up after that, adding that the police should have reacted more quickly.

The trimescale, according to the police, was that they received their first call at 12.57pm and arrived at 1.03am.
The incident lasted for around 15-20 minutes and the Woodhouse Street attacks are all captured on the CCTV footage, which has been handed over to the police and to the Police Ombudsman.

Police say they handed over the footage to the commission in the interests of transparency and community reassurance.

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