DUP hardliner arrested over her ‘massacre Sinn Féin’ Facebook post

Cllr Ruth Patterson, DUP: 'We would have done a great service to Northern Ireland getting rid of these evil, devious, scum-like individuals'

HARDLINE DUP Councillor Ruth Patterson – former Deputy Mayor of Belfast and one-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier – was arrested on Friday morning around 9am and was still being questioned by the PSNI on Friday evening after her Facebook posting endorsed the killing of named republicans.

The south Belfast councillor, responding to a fictional scenario in which loyalists massacred republicans attending a rally in Castlederg, west Tyrone, wrote: “We would have done a great service to Northern Ireland getting rid of these evil, devious, scum-like individuals.”

The DUP standard bearer also said she didn’t care how she would be judged or what other people thought.

•  The original post about the fictional attack

•  Ruth Patterson's response

Under pressure later from the DUP leadership after a public and media backlash, she was forced to issue an apology.

“I unreservedly apologise for this lapse of judgement,” she said. “I completely withdraw this flawed Facebook comment. Murder and terrorism can never be justified in any circumstances.”

The Facebook page was subsequently removed.

When she was Deputy Mayor of Belfast, she snubbed a congratulatory handshake from Sinn Féin Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile, claiming that she didn’t shake his hand because suffered from a “hearing impediment”!

She was a leading figure in the Union flag protests that plagued Belfast from the end of last year.

Ruth Patterson’s Facebook comments this week came in the wake of plans for a republican commemoration in Castlederg, County Tyrone, on 'Tyrone Volunteers Day'

Ruth Patterson left Musgrave PSNI station just after 10pm Friday without saying anything and was ushered into a car by her family to cheers from supporters, according to UTV.