A PLANNED VIGIL to protest the alleged sexual assault of a young girl gathered in Ballymena in Co Antrim last night but it was soon “hijacked” by “racist thuggery”.

That’s the assessment from PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson, who spoke to the media from Ballymena Police Station following last night’s rioting.

The vigil gathered at 7.30pm and an estimated crowd of between 3,000 and 4,000 people were present.

Henderson said the vigil was “initially peaceful” and confirmed that it had been organised following an alleged sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town on Saturday.

On Sunday, two teenage boys were arrested in connection with the incident and later charged.

They appeared before court yesterday and spoke through an interpreter in Romanian to confirm their names and ages.

The family of the victim had put a call out for a peaceful protest and vigil to take place “to show our anger at what cannot and will not be tolerated in this town.”

The victim’s father further said that “not all people with different ethnicities” commit crimes, and invited people from other communities in Ballymena to attend the protest too.

The father said: “We don’t want everyone getting blamed for this type of action.”

However, Henderson said it was clear that some within the vigil had anti-immigration sentiment.

“Violence is no way of expressing your opinion and it should be called out from what it is, racist thuggery,” said Henderson.

While the vigil started off peaceful, Henderson said a number of masked individuals broke away from it and began to “build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties in the area”.

He said the violence that followed was “clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community”.

“It was racist thuggery, pure and simple,” said Henderson, “and any attempt to justify or explain it as something else is misplaced.”

The crowd then turned on the police and attacked officers with petrol bombs and masonry – 15 officers were injured.

This disorder was sustained for several hours and a number of homes and businesses were damaged, with windows and doors smashed.

Four houses were damaged by fire, with three people evacuated.

Six other homes were left with shattered windows and damage.

The homes of people from the Roma Community were targeted and it’s understood that those who had their homes destroyed are currently staying in a hotel in another location.

Henderson remarked that there was “some degree of planning” given that officers had petrol bombs and masonry thrown at them.

He said he was “absolutely convinced” that some in that group were “clearly intent on violence from the start of the evening”.

“The fact that they have some weaponry ready to throw at police, would say to me that there was some degree of pre-planning from those involved,” he added.

And while Henderson said police had no prior intelligence on last night’s violence, he added that “there was a concern there might have been potential for what was intended to be a peaceful event to be hijacked”.

“That’s why we had a policing operation in place last night, in anticipation that this could be a potential outcome,” he added.

“A small number of those involved in the vigil decided to act in a violent way, and officers were there in numbers responding to that.”

He said there were “multiple seats of disorder and multiple instances of violence”.

Henderson added that he “cannot imagine the fear felt by those innocent families” and that he is aware that “members of our minority ethnic community feel fear”.

Image of the rioting last night in Ballymena

Meanwhile, Henderson remarked that social media “can be incredibly toxic” and urged people to “exercise extreme caution about what they’re posting on social media”.

He added that “anyone who tries to portray last night’s violence as anything other than the racist thuggery that it was is misplaced”.

Henderson meanwhile told reporters he is “very aware about rising levels of race hate attacks within Northern Ireland”.

He referenced anti-immigration rioting in Belfast last year and remarked that “we are starting to see the criminal justice outcomes from that and people will start to be sentenced over the coming months”.

“We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour and will seek to bring people to court for the actions that are absolutely unacceptable in our society,” said Henderson.

While Henderson said there is no specific intelligence about the likelihood of any other disorder across Northern Ireland, he said his role “is to understand the implications that there might be”.

He said he has mobilised a significant amount of policing resources in the days ahead, “not just in Ballymena, but beyond, should we see any disorder elsewhere”.

He added that he has been “reassured” that officers in England and Wales “stand fast and ready to support us”.

“Should there be any additional needs, we’ll make those requests, but I’m confident that we have the resourcing we need in place to keep people safe,” said Henderson.

Elsewhere, emergency services were called to Tober Park nearby in Cullybackey last night, where a car was set alight.

A Filipino mother and her children awoke to the sound of a blazing fire in their back garden – their car had been set alight, and the fire had spread to their shed. They fled immediately.

Henderson said the PSNI is connecting that incident to the rioting in Ballymena and is treating it as a race hate incident.

Local DUP councillor Tyler Hoey said he has spoken with the family today in Culleybackey but warned that the outcome could have been worse.

“We want the couple and their two children, who attend the local school, to know that we want them here, we don’t condone this kind of violence, and police are working hard to get to the bottom of this,” he told The Journal.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor Bréannainn Lyness said the peaceful protest in Ballymena had widespread support in the community, but what broke out was “racist violence” which has been widely condemned.

“Ballymena does have a problem with sexual assaults towards young women, but the perpetrators have come from all backgrounds.

“What we had here was a group of people who scapegoated the Roma community, and used the protest as a cover for racism and abuse,” he said.

“The Roma community have been targeted here before, but it’s always been on a smaller scale, they’ve had their windows smashed in.

“We don’t know how these people will be able to return and live here after this violence, and the destruction of their homes,” Lyness added.

Meanwhile, some 15 officers were injured last night in Ballymena and Henderson added that one arrest has been made, “with more to follow”.

He said the PSNI is actively working to identify those responsible and “bring them to justice”.

The PSNI has begun examining video and online footage of last night’s rioting.

He also urged those involved in last night’s violence to “reflect long and hard about their actions, as they will have consequences” and appealed for calm over the coming days.