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LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago
PSNI OFFICERS CAME under attack for a fourth consecutive night in Northern Ireland as disorder spread through multiple towns on Thursday.
Missiles were thrown at officers after a protest in Portadown yesterday, continuing a trend that was sparked earlier in the week in Ballymena.
Around 80 public-order officers from Scotland came to the region on Thursday to support policing efforts.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s police chief warned “bigots and racists” behind earlier nights of unrest in the region that his officers will be coming after them.
Jon Boutcher said a young girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in Ballymena at the weekend, an incident that triggered protests that descended into violence in the Co Antrim town, had been “further traumatised” by the rioting since Monday.
Over 60 officers have been injured in the unrest, which has resulted in 17 arrested by this morning.
Boutcher, who met the girl’s family earlier that day, spoke to the media in Belfast after a meeting with his oversight body, the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
“Stop this violence,” he said. “We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully. It is not in any way a way for a civilised society to behave and it must stop now.”
He said the family was “mortified” by the disorder.
“This girl’s family and this girl want it to end. Our communities want it to end. We need it to end. So please don’t come out on the streets tonight. If you do, we will police you and we will deal with you through the criminal justice system.”
After the warning, there were tense scenes in Portadown as masked individuals hurled masonry, fireworks and other objects at riot police late into the night.
Officers moved to extinguish fires set on roads while residents worked to clear debris left over from clashes.
Police units, supported by the presence of a water cannon, dispersed those gathered into other areas of the town towards midnight.
Twenty-two officers were injured in Portadown last night, though there were no reports of injury to the public or damage to property.
Two arrests were made in Portadown – a woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s – on suspicion of riotous behaviour and other offences in connection with the disorder.
There was some protest reported in Belfast – these were mainly peaceful – with travel disrupted in the Templemore Avenue area of east Belfast for short time.
Bricks were thrown through the windows of two houses in the Avoniel Road in a racially-motivated attack.
There was also a small fire at the Manse Road roundabout in Newtownabbey, while reports of anti-immigration hate graffiti being investigating in Newtownards.
Elsewhere, a house fire in the Mount Street area of Coleraine is being treated as deliberate and a racially-motivated hate crime.
A family with three young children were evacuated from this property.
Meanwhile, Ballymena did not witness the disgraceful scenes of rioting as previous nights.
The riotous behaviour earlier in the week saw vandalism, vehicles burned and arson attacks on a number of properties across several towns.
Petrol bombs, fireworks, masonry and a hatchet were among items thrown at officers.
Police responded with water cannon, dogs and plastic baton rounds in an attempt to disperse crowds during riots in Ballymena.
Boutcher said: “I want to send a very clear message to all our diverse communities: we stand absolutely shoulder to shoulder with you. We are here to protect you.
“We are your police service, and these bigots and racists will not win the day. This will be policed properly.”
The PSNI chief said the initial lawful and legitimate process before unrest broke out was done in a way that was responsible and empathetic to the victim.
However, he said the protest was subsequently “hijacked” and turned into “wanton, disgraceful criminal behaviour that is absolutely race motivated”.
The chief said the service was under-resourced and needed to be funded “properly” rather than “disgracefully”.
Elsewhere, Liam Kelly, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said a business plan had been submitted to increase the PSNI but that Stormont rejected it “on the basis of affordability”.
The UK Government undertook a spending review earlier this week and Kelly expressed hope that “something will happen”.
However, he said the force needs “long-term sustainable funding, not short term funding” and that it will “take time for us to recruit officers and bring them into service”.
But despite under-resourcing within the PSNI, police chief Boutcher said officers would still bring people to justice.
He described how PSNI members helped evacuate foreign national families who were hiding in attics and wardrobes in their homes in Ballymena as rioters went on the rampage on Monday.
He said the families targeted had done nothing wrong.
“They are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here and are well integrated,” he said.
“Fire Service colleagues described how they went to the scenes to stop arson attacks at those addresses, and how they, in all their years in the Fire Service, have not seen levels of violence to that level, and told me specifically and directly of the bravery, the courage of a very thin green line of police officers that without doubt, in my view, saved lives that night.”
Earlier, a judge said the courts would deal “robustly” with those involved in the violence in Ballymena.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said that young people who got involved were risking a significant custodial sentence, as three teenagers faced rioting charges at the town’s magistrates’ court on Thursday.
Michael Elliot, 18, of Lanntara, Ballymena, and two youths, were the first defendants to appear in court since the sustained violence erupted on Monday.
Meanwhile, two other teenage boys who were arrested during the disorder have been released on bail to allow for further police inquiries.
There was an arson attack on a leisure centre in Larne, thirty minutes from Ballymena, after it was temporarily used as an emergency shelter for those in urgent need after disturbances in the town earlier in the week.
Communities Minister and DUP MLA Gordon Lyons, who highlighted the use of the building in a social media post, said all those who had been staying at the leisure centre are in the care of the Housing Executive and have been moved out of Larne.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said Lyons should resign over the post, and the leader of the opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly, SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole, said he would refer the Communities Minister to the standards commission.
Lyons has resisted calls for his resignation and said he would “strongly hit back at any notion” that he had publicly revealed the facility was being used to house immigrant families who had been affected by violence in Ballymena.
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