Dozen police officers assaulted while arresting man over domestic incident

TWELVE police officers were assaulted while arresting a man in Lurgan at the weekend.

Officers were responding to a call for assistance to a domestic assault report in the early hours of Saturday.

While arresting the man on suspicion of common assault, he began lashing out at officers, landing kicks to their legs, as well as spitting, punching and attempting to headbutt them.

The behaviour continued for some time with further assaults on the custody sergeant and civilian detention officers on arrival at Banbridge Custody Suite.

In total, 18 police officers and staff were injured during the course of their duties in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon over the weekend. This was during the three separate arrests of three men.

Chief Inspector Brendan Green condemned each attack, describing them as “shameful and unacceptable”.

“In what other job would this happen? Our officers and staff are working hard to keep their communities safe and do not deserve this treatment,” he said.

“While we come to work knowing we could be faced with difficult and dangerous situations, it is completely unacceptable that our officers should be assaulted and verbally berated in the most shocking ways for simply doing their jobs.

“Our officers have received welfare support and, thankfully, their injuries were not more serious and they felt well enough to remain on duty. But it highlights our message that all assaults on emergency service workers — be that a nurse, doctor, paramedic or police officer — are serious offences and there are serious consequences.

“Two of these men have been charged to court with one released on police bail to allow for further investigation.

“Assaults on our officers are unacceptable, and will not be tolerated.”

Meanwhile the Police Federation of Northern Ireland — the body which represents rank-andfile officers here — branded the incident as “shameful and appalling”.

“Thoughts are with our colleagues. Tougher sentences required,” they added in a social media post.