A sorry week for us all as crime gangs bid to reassert lost authority
Mother of teen hails air ambulance and urges more support for service
IN a week when Northern Ireland suffered bomb alerts, petrol bomb attacks, stabbing incidents and shootings, our criminal underbelly has raised its ugly head once again.
Organised crime has been on the march over the last few weeks but the sheer volume of incidents this week alone has been of huge concern.
Fifteen families were forced to leave their homes in Newry last Saturday as police investigated an explosive device, while a petrol bomb was thrown at a property in Cookstown.
A 29-year-old man was left fighting for his life after he was shot in north Belfast on Sunday. It was the first of two shooting incidents in the space of 24 hours.
Police attended the scene of another gun attack in the Mossside Gardens area of Ballymoney.
It was reported that a male had been shot in a residential property. It was the 17th shooting in the area since 2020.
As the violence raged on, Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey and SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon were both targeted after reports of explosive devices at their Belfast offices on Tuesday.
Residents in west Belfast’s Devonshire Place were evacuated from their homes after police dealt with a hoax device on Wednesday.
A day later, three men were arrested following a stabbing incident in Ballycastle.
Meanwhile, police are now investigating images of armed and masked men in Crumlin warning drug dealers to leave the area.
Graffiti also appeared in the vicinity warning ‘IRA territory drug dealers out’.
DUP MLA Pam Cameron urged the PSNI to get to the bottom of the pictures, claiming the men were linked to a paramilitary group.
Local SDLP councillor Thomas Burns added: “I want to make it very clear that these men and the group they claim to represent do not speak on behalf of our community and they are certainly not the face of justice in our community.”
Sinn Fein’s South Antrim MLA
Declan Kearney called on the Crumlin community to “remain united” following the images of the masked armed men.
“All right-minded people will be affronted by the irresponsible behaviour of those involved,” he said.
“This is another instance of anti-community activity in Crumlin carried out by a small number of criminal mavericks whose sole motivation is to create fear and alarm.”
All of this week’s incidents come on the back of the north Belfast murder of Daniel ‘Danny’ Mcclean, who had links to Oglaigh na heireann, and the show of strength allegedly by the east Belfast UVF in Pitt Park.
Three men were arrested yesterday in connection to that incident.
Former RUC and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alan Mcquillan believes the organised gangs and paramilitary groups could be attempting to stamp their authority on communities as the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is in sight.
“I think as things start to open up again, the organised criminals, who plague communities, are starting to come back out again,” he said. “The dissidents have been out trying to bolster their position.
“I think they’re feeling quite vulnerable at the moment because, quite frankly, very few people support them actively.
“The more the pandemic has gone on, people have looked around and thought ‘there’s more to life than this’ in terms of the terrorism here.
“They’re now trying reassert their authority again. That applies to both the loyalist areas and the republican areas.
“People are just fed up with paramilitarism and they want it to go away.”
SDLP MLA and Policing Board member Dolores Kelly added that Northern Ireland’s political leaders should be careful with their words as they can play on people’s emotions and heighten tensions, especially during the fallout of Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Ms Kelly also said that previous PSNI Chief Constables “have made it very clear” that the socalled paramilitary groups are organised criminal gangs, but some have taken advantage of the Brexit fallout.
She explained that the Independent Reporting Commission told the Policing Board last week that there are still high levels of recruitment into paramilitary organisations.
“There’s a conversation to be had about are we doing enough to enable those who want to transition away from paramilitary activities and break the hold they have over some communities,” Ms Kelly added.
“It is a worrying trend and it is something that reminds us that we cannot take our eye off the ball and we must remain vigilant.
“People in political leadership need to show leadership and calm situations, rather than throwing fuel onto the fire.”
Despite the extreme rise in criminal activity in recent weeks, the Department of Justice revealed yesterday that the risk of becoming a victim of crime remains lower in Northern Ireland (6.9%) than in England and Wales (13.3%).
The findings were published within the Research and Statistical Bulletin ‘Experience of Crime: Findings from the 2019/20 Northern Ireland Safe Community Survey’ (NISCS).
Results from the survey indicated that most adults did not experience one of the crimes asked about in the survey, such as domestic burglary, theft, common assault and wounding.
The findings estimated that 6.9% of adults here were victims of at least one crime measured through the survey over the last 12 months.
The 2019/20 rate of 6.9% is one of the lowest victimisation rates estimated since the measure was first reported in 1998 (23.0%).
‘Organised criminals are starting to come back out again... to bolster their position’
THE mother of an east Belfast teenager who almost lost his leg in a freak football accident has told of his remarkable recovery.
Tina Logan recalled how the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (Hems) came to the aid of 15-year-old son Logan Whiteside two years ago after an incident in a match left him requiring urgent medical attention.
The family is speaking out to raise awareness of the charity, which is in need of financial support.
It comes at the end of a year which has seen the number of callouts for the air ambulance rise by 18.5%.
Despite lockdown restrictions, the Hems charity was tasked on 692 missions in 2020.
But for Logan, the arrival of the air ambulance on August 25, 2018 means that today, more than two years on, he is well on the road to recovery.
Logan, now 17, had been playing football in Victoria Park with Ballysillan Swifts while his dad watched.
That was until a tackle left him suffering from a traumatic leg injury.
“He was in an immense amount of pain as he waited for care,” said Tina.
“The Helicopter Emergency Medical Service team were called to the scene, arriving by air ambulance.”
They found that Logan had suffered a compound right tibial fracture, and due to the severity of his injury he had a long road to recovery.
He received advanced pain relief before being transferred by road ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
“He spent a week in hospital during which he had a frame fitted to his leg which was in place for eight months,” explained Tina.
“Logan then had months of physiotherapy at Musgrave Park Hospital, which really helped his leg heal.”
Logan has made a fantastic recovery and his leg has healed remarkably well, she said.
Shortly after his cage was removed in March 2019, Logan returned to normal life and was able to attend a concert.
“Logan still plays football with his friends and has also found a new love for skateboarding,” added Tina.
“I would like to thank the air ambulance team that were there that day. They helped calm the situation and made Logan feel a lot more comfortable than he was before they arrived.
“The road to recovery has been a long process but his consultant and the physiotherapy team in Musgrave Park are amazing people and he wouldn’t have got through it without them. The team do an amazing job.”
Glenn O’rorke, operational lead for the charity, said that providing the service 365 days of the year for 12 hours per day requires donations of £2m per year.
“We have been asked why the Hems team would be needed in Belfast given travel times to surrounding hospitals, yet the service responds to incidents based on critical nature of injury and where our skills can make a difference,” he said.
“Last year, callouts to the Belfast City Council area accounted for around a third of all missions.”
Since the inception of the service in July 2017, the crew has responded to 1,943 emergency incidents.
Road traffic collisions remain the most common type of incident attended by the medical crew, followed by falls.
Around one in 10 is workplace accidents, including on local farms.
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‘Logan was in an immense amount of pain as he waited for care... air ambulance team made Logan a lot more comfortable’