News in Brief

Owen Fitzpatrick said he was held by two PSNI members as another one sprayed him on the face and neck

PSNI targets 15-year-old with CS spray

A 15-year-old boy was left with burns to his neck after he was sprayed with CS spray and arrested by the PSNI on Saturday 14 January.

St Mary's schoolboy Owen Fitzpatrick said he was held by two PSNI members as another one sprayed him on the face and neck.

"It was point blank. He kept spraying me and spraying me."

The teenager said that the burn caused by the spray was so painful that he had to attend the doctor, who proscribed ointment.

"The blistering came out on Sunday and I'm still in pain. It's a burning sensation and it has kept me from sleeping."

Owen's mother Christine said she is angry at the use of the debilitating spray and has lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman's office.

"I was angry when I saw him. I was even sneezing and coughing and my face started to burn just standing beside him. I don't think that the spray should be used on anybody and definitely not on a 15-year-old child."

Owen was released without charge.

Paisley should withdraw remarks about solicitors

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly said remarks by Ian Paisley's linking solicitors to IRA activity mirrored those made by former British Minister Douglas Hogg which preceded the killing of Pat Finucane.

He called on Paisley to withdraw his "highly irresponsible and dangerous" remarks.

Cabinet may have known of Ludlow cover-up

Michael Donegan, a nephew of County Louth man Séamus Ludlow, who was murdered by unionist paramilitaries in 1976, said that Irish Cabinet Ministers may have known of a Garda plot to cover up the murder.

Donegan was speaking on Tuesday after appearing before an Oireachtas subcommittee sitting to consider the Barron Report on the murder of Séamus Ludlow.

He said the only way to get to the truth would be through a public inquiry.

Derry PSNI's "wanton destruction"

A PSNI squad that kicked down the door of a house in the Creggan area of Derry, on Friday 13 January, are guilty of, "wanton destruction", according Sinn Féin Councillor Kevin Campbell.

According to Campbell, who went to the scene of the incident in Cromore Gardens, the PSNI told him they kicked down the door of the house because they were looking for a member of the household who they say had not paid a number of fines.

Campbell said the house was unoccupied. "The PSNI didn't take the time to find out if the person was in the house. They just kicked in the door damaging the door and frame. The action amounts to illegal entry. This wanton destruction is typical of the PSNI's attitude towards nationalists."

Union jack row in Lisburn

Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Butler has told An Phoblacht he will seek a judicial review of the decision by Lisburn Council to allow the union flag to be flown at its council headquarters and throughout Lisburn all year round, unless the policy is overturned at a full council meeting at the end of the month.

"The Equality Commission also need to investigate this matter as it ignores equality legislation and there is an onus on the Commission to bring Lisburn Council to book over this matter to stamp out discrimination," said Butler.

DUP man feted by UDA supporter

West Belfast Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Maskey has accused DUP Councillor William Humphreys of hypocrisy after he invited UDA and UVF-linked politicians to his inauguration as High Sheriff on Thursday 19 January, while snubbing Sinn Féin.

Humphreys invitations included Frank McCoubrey who shared a platform with UDA gunmen in the Shankill area of Belfast in 2000 and the Progressive Unionist Party which gives political advice to the UVF.

Private landlords guilty of 'rackrenting'

Coleraine Sinn Féin Councillor Billy Leonard says some private landlords in the Portstewart area of North County Derry are charging up to £800 a month and said their behaviour amounts to, "rackrenting".

Leonard said average rent in the area is £400. "As well as exorbitant rents migrant workers and students are charged separately for oil and electricity. Most of those affected work in low-income employment." He called for rents to be regulated.

Prison Review into deaths

Commenting last week on the publication of A review of non-natural deaths in prison service establishment (June 2002-March 2004), Sinn Féin's Caitríona Ruane said more action was needed.

"Last year, following several controversial deaths by suicide in Maghaberry Prison, the British Government chose to ignore the recommendations of its own Prisons Inspectorate and transferred women to an even more unsuitable prison, Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre," Ruane said. "It is vital that recommendations from these reports as well as the one published today are acted on."

Ruane said women were being held in unsuitable conditions in Hydebank and the prisons officers are mostly male.

Tallaght A&E

Minister for Health Mary Harney needs to wake up and release urgently needed funding for the medical admissions and assessment unit at Tallaght Hospital, according to Dublin Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe. Crowe made his remarks last Thursday following reports that between 40 and 50 patients a day are lying on trolleys and that one woman had been on a trolley for eight days. He said the unit was promised in the ten-point plan back in November 2004 but only half the €3million required to build the unit had been approved.

"The idea of building prefabs to house patients while they wait to get into the hospital wards is just a sticky plaster approach and it only really solves half of the problem," he added.

School inequality

A survey showing that little or no improvement has taken place in literacy rates in disadvantaged areas since 1999 will be published next week. Dublin Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe said the survey by the Education Research Centre at St Patrick's College indicated a failure in government policy to tackle what he termed "this grotesque social scandal". Crowe said despite the massive wealth that exists in the state it is clear that educational equality for all is not a priority for the government.