26 April 2001 Edition
Derryman accuses RUC of brutality after attack on family
Derryman John Deery is accusing the RUC of brutality after an incident in the city last Monday 16 April when the RUC arrested him. The man's 18-year-old son Sean and 16-year-old daughter Tina were also attacked and arrested by the RUC.
The RUC stopped and arrested Deery as he was returning home after he collected Sean from a nightclub.When he asked the RUC to contact a taxi to bring his children home because it was 5am, the RUC said, ``they can walk''.
According to Deery the RUC then got heavy handed, tightening the handcuffs he was in, pulling his arms up and punching him a couple of times before throwing him into the back of a vehicle.
It wasn't until Deery saw his son with a black eye in the RUC barracks that he realised his children had also been assaulted and arrested. Both Sean and Tina were charged with assault.
Deery said after he was taken away the RUC began taunting the teenagers about their uncle Paddy, an IRA Volunteer killed in an explosion in 1988. They also directed obscene verbal abuse at Tina, said Deery.
John Deery's mother, Peggy, was shot and seriously wounded by British Paratroops on Bloody Sunday in Derry, the only woman to be shot on the day.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's Jim Kelly has described an RUC attack on a man in the Strathfoyle area of Derry as ``representing the true face of this paramilitary force''. James McGrory was beaten about the lower body when the RUC attacked him last weekend. The RUC have been involved in a ``campaign of harassment against young nationalists in the Strathfoyle area in recent weeks'', said Kelly.
The RUC stopped and arrested Deery as he was returning home after he collected Sean from a nightclub.When he asked the RUC to contact a taxi to bring his children home because it was 5am, the RUC said, ``they can walk''.
According to Deery the RUC then got heavy handed, tightening the handcuffs he was in, pulling his arms up and punching him a couple of times before throwing him into the back of a vehicle.
It wasn't until Deery saw his son with a black eye in the RUC barracks that he realised his children had also been assaulted and arrested. Both Sean and Tina were charged with assault.
Deery said after he was taken away the RUC began taunting the teenagers about their uncle Paddy, an IRA Volunteer killed in an explosion in 1988. They also directed obscene verbal abuse at Tina, said Deery.
John Deery's mother, Peggy, was shot and seriously wounded by British Paratroops on Bloody Sunday in Derry, the only woman to be shot on the day.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's Jim Kelly has described an RUC attack on a man in the Strathfoyle area of Derry as ``representing the true face of this paramilitary force''. James McGrory was beaten about the lower body when the RUC attacked him last weekend. The RUC have been involved in a ``campaign of harassment against young nationalists in the Strathfoyle area in recent weeks'', said Kelly.