Young man's skull fractured

A 21-year-old Catholic man had his skull fractured with either a wheel brace or hammer when he was attacked by loyalists as he walked along the Cliftonville Road in North Belfast in the early hours of Sunday morning 5 October.

Kevin Milligan was walking home from a friend's house when a car carrying two men and a number of women aboard pulled up beside him near St James's Church.

The two men got jumped from the car and ran at Milligan. They struck him over the head with the weapon and as the young nationalist fell to the ground he was struck a second time on the head.

Milligan's sister said he had been watching the Celtic and Rangers football match and was walking home when the sectarian attack occurred.

"He had been wearing a Celtic top and his attackers called him a scumbag as they beat him. When he fell onto the ground they kept hitting him over the head, maybe two or three times. The women in the car called out to the attackers to 'get in, get in, that's enough'."

The car sped off in the direction of the Antrim Road.

Milligan's mother Patricia said she was "very shaken up" by the incident, describing it as her "worst nightmare come true".

Meanwhile, on Thursday and Friday 2 and 3 October, a Catholic schoolboy and a nationalist man were attacked by loyalists.

On Thursday night, the man was returning home past the Ardoyne shops when he was subjected to a severe beating.

On Friday morning, a 12-year-old Catholic schoolboy attending St Gabriel's Secondary school was assaulted by two loyalists who jumped from a car at the loyalist Hesketh, shouting sectarian abuse and and knocking the boy to the ground.

A petrol bomb was thrown at the home of a Catholic family on the Deerpark Road in the early hours of Saturday 4 October.

The homeowner found the remains of the device outside the front of the house on Sunday morning.