A SENIOR PSNI officer has defended the decision not to carry out large-scale arrests of rioters at Ardoyne after the father of a woman police officer who was hospitalised when a large stone slab was dropped on her head complained of police inaction.
Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said police had identified the man who attacked the officer and would be seeking to arrest him. Rioters would be pursued, arrested and charged, he added.
PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott briefed First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday on the trouble.
Mr Robinson said he was disappointed to see “the baton of hatred pass on to another generation” while Mr McGuinness said there were still “small elements” intent on fomenting disorder.
Police had to deal with a third night of rioting in Belfast on Tuesday, with up to six shots fired during disturbances in Ardoyne in north Belfast. Yesterday evening British army bomb disposal experts defused a coffee-jar bomb in Ardoyne.
The situation again remained tense last night. There were more blast and petrol bomb attacks, with some 150 rioters involved in the trouble on Tuesday night. Since Sunday night, 83 officers have been injured.
The pictures of the woman officer being attacked on Monday night caused particular condemnation and revulsion, especially as rioters laughed and jeered after she was injured, and they continued to fire missiles at her and at her colleagues as officers tried to shield and treat her.
The officer, who is named Samantha, is in a stable condition in hospital.
Her father, named Maurice, after visiting her told BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen Nolan Show yesterday that he could not understand why rioters had not been arrested.
He said his daughter joined the PSNI after working for a period in Israel and loved the work. “But when I saw her lying there last night I thought, why should she do it?
“She was crying when I was visiting her. She’s in a state of shock basically. Fortunately enough her injuries aren’t life-threatening; the fact is that she could easily have been killed as well,” he added.
“She was still quite confused last night. She said she cried and cried and cried and cried. It must have been some reaction to it all – she was crying with me last night and I was crying with her,” added Maurice, who did not want to give his or her surname.
Asst Chief Constable McCausland said the police now knew the name of the man who dropped the slab on the officer.
“The individual that dropped the block on Samantha as she was advancing made off across the roof. That individual has been identified. Take it from me he can now sit and worry. Wherever he is in Northern Ireland we will be coming for him.”
Mr McCausland said it was not feasible to send in snatch squads to make arrests on the night because that could leave officers open to gun or blast bomb attacks from dissident republicans.
“There are sinister elements in the crowd that would happily want to draw the police into side streets and back alleys, the simple reason to launch more serious attacks against them – gun and blast bomb attacks,” he said.
He said a similar situation arose in Ardoyne in 2005 but that subsequently 170 people, who had been identified by film footage and other means, were arrested, with many going to prison. The same would apply now.
“There will be significant arrests over the forthcoming days; these individuals will not go scot-free,” said Mr McCausland.