Series of attacks leave family homeless

A Catholic family escaped injury after unionist petrol bombers attacked their Lapwing Way home in the unionist Clooney area of the Waterside shortly before midnight on Thursday 5 January.

The bomb caused scorch damage to the front of steps of the house.

The woman who wishes to remain anonymous said she was shocked by the sectarian attack on her home and believed she was targeted because she is the only Catholic living in the area.

"I opened the front door and saw the flames. I ran straight into the kitchen and got a basin of water and threw it over the flames because I could see the flames going towards the car."

The woman said she has lived in the house since the estate was first built and was shocked by the petrol-bomb attack.

It was the second time in four months that her home has came under sectarian attack. In September a paint bomb was thrown at the rear of the house.

The sectarian attack took place just 24 hours after a similar petrol-bomb assault on the house of a Protestant family in the Fountain area of Derry.

The family home of William Jackson was damaged when it was struck by a petrol bomb thrown from the mainly nationalist Bishop Street area of Derry's West Bank.

It has also emerged that a Protestant woman has been intimidated from her home on the Fountain Estate by loyalists angry that her daughters are friendly with Catholics.

Helen Wray and her 15-year-old daughter, Nicole, were escorted from their Kennedy Place home on Saturday 7 January by the PSNI after the family home was attacked by a loyalist mob. Around six hours later the house set on fire causing extensive damage.

According to Ms Wray her daughters were attacked in the home on Thursday 5 January by loyalists armed with baseball bats.