News in Brief 1

Banbridge Councillor petrol-bombed

Sinn Féin Banbridge Councillor Dessie Ward escaped serious injury after a unionist petrol bomber tried to torch his Scarva Road home on Monday 8 August

Ward said that the attack will not stop him from representing the people who elected him to Banbridge Council.

"I would take this opportunity to ask David Simpson the DUP MP for the area to utterly condemn this and to use any influence he has to put an end to these sectarian attacks."

Harryville Church attacked again

The Church of Our Lady in Harryville in Ballymena, was attacked for the second time in two weeks. Blue paint was thrown over the front entrance of the building at the weekend.

Larne loyalist on charges

A Larne loyalist was refused bail at Belfast High Court on Saturday 6 August after facing charges connected to the systematic beating of a nationalist man on 22 July.

The court was told 19-year-old Gareth John Reid had lured the man to a house in Walnut Avenue in Larne and along with three other loyalists kicked, punched and struck the victim with an electrical stun gun.

Nationalists attacked in Derry

In a spate of attacks in the Waterside area of Derry the window of a nationalist woman's home was smashed while up to seven cars were damaged as a gang of unionist youths ran amok in the Tullyally and Currynierin Estates on Saturday night 6 August. The same gang are thought to be responsible for a sectarian attack on a taxi driver early on Sunday morning as he drove along a stretch of road between the two estates.