Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PENSIONER’S LIVING HELL
Widow’s miracle escape after thugs torch pallets next to home
A WIDOW said she is “living in hell” at the hands of thugs who almost burnt down her house.
Jean Mcmahon, 77, was lucky to escape unhurt after bonfire pallets piled close to her North Belfast home went up in flames on Sunday. Last night she said: “It’s hell living here. I feel so hopeless and it just keeps escalating. “This is every year but this is the
It’s hell here. They want to get me out but where am I going to go? JEAN MCMAHON BELFAST YESTERDAY
worst. There’s nowhere to turn. They want to get me out but where am I going to go?” Neighbours rescued Jean but couldn’t get her bed-bound neighbour out of his house so stayed with him until firefighters arrived. The blaze also put a youth club and blocks of flats in danger just days after fears were raised about safety in NI Housing Executive flats in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The New Lodge properties now need new windows which melted in the blaze and there are safety fears over the roofs and yard walls. The pensioner has raised eight children and lost a husband and a son in the home where she has lived for more than four decades but has been terrorised by a gang of youths for the past five years. Made up of around 20 children, teenagers and men in their 20s, she said this was not the first time they have risked her life. Last year the pensioner said they left a pipe bomb at her door which, in a panic, she lifted and threw away. She added: “This is not just one day, two days, three days. This is every night they’re sitting there. “They said I don’t own the outside and they can stand there as long as they want.” The gang hoards materials for a bonfire on the anniversary of internment on August 9, which was voted against by the community. Then they gather to drink, take drugs and blast out music beside Jean’s end-terrace, she claimed. Her son Manuel appealed to anyone with influence in the area to help his mother out of “this hopeless situation”. He said: “They are putting pipe bombs at her door because she has faced up to them. “Why is a group of 20 kids running this neighbourhood? “Why is everybody afraid of them and why are they getting away with it?” Chief Inspector Stephen Burns appealed for residents to call the PSNI if they are worried. He added: “Police are aware of reports of anti-social behaviour in the Pinkerton Walk area of Belfast and will continue to closely monitor any such reports and respond appropriately, including focusing joint patrols at locations across North Belfast at particular times of the day and night. A Housing Executive spokesman said: “Twice our contractors have cleared away the pallets in the past two weeks and twice our contractors attempted to remove this material but they were subjected to intimidation and threats of violence. “We previously erected fencing at this site in an effort to discourage dumping however, this has been damaged. “This will be replaced on Tuesday and a full clean-up will then take place.” Sinn Fein councillor JJ Magee added a small gang of youths is behind the crimes. He said: “They have broken into a local building site, near a day care centre, stole planks, ladders and destroyed CCTV. “They have attacked residents with bottles who asked them move wood away from their homes, and threatened Housing Executive workers. “However, setting fire to wood piled near businesses and homes is a whole different level of threat. “This could have led to serious damage to property or serious injury. “I am working with the council, the Housing Executive and the emergency services to tackle this blight. “I am also appealing to the young people involved to desist before someone is killed or injured.”