25 November 1999 Edition
Teenager beaten by RUC
If anybody still needed proof of why the RUC must be disbanded then they should look no further than the vicious assault on a 15-year-old Armagh City boy, who was attacked by the RUC on the night of Sunday, 24 October.
The teenager was sitting across the road from his front door with a friend. He was eating a bar of chocolate and as he threw the wrapper away, it hit a passing armoured RUC car. The armoured car pulled up and one of the officers approached the boy saying ``You fired this at the car''. The boy apologised.
The RUC officer said he wanted to speak to the teenager for a couple of minutes and attempted to pull him into the vehicle. The youth resisted and the other RUC officer present took out his baton and began to viciously beat the youth.
Another armoured car arrived and the teenager was arrested and taken to the local barracks. The boy was charged with two counts of obstruction and one count of disorderly behaviour.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, the boy's mother, Dympna McKeague, said she had made a complaint to the RUC and has received a letter back naming an RUC officer Lappin as being involved.
According to local people, one of the other RUC men present, a sergeant, is well known for harassing and beating young people from the nationalist community. Following the attack on her son, Dympna has contacted her solicitor and various human rights groups.
The teenager was sitting across the road from his front door with a friend. He was eating a bar of chocolate and as he threw the wrapper away, it hit a passing armoured RUC car. The armoured car pulled up and one of the officers approached the boy saying ``You fired this at the car''. The boy apologised.
The RUC officer said he wanted to speak to the teenager for a couple of minutes and attempted to pull him into the vehicle. The youth resisted and the other RUC officer present took out his baton and began to viciously beat the youth.
Another armoured car arrived and the teenager was arrested and taken to the local barracks. The boy was charged with two counts of obstruction and one count of disorderly behaviour.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, the boy's mother, Dympna McKeague, said she had made a complaint to the RUC and has received a letter back naming an RUC officer Lappin as being involved.
According to local people, one of the other RUC men present, a sergeant, is well known for harassing and beating young people from the nationalist community. Following the attack on her son, Dympna has contacted her solicitor and various human rights groups.
