Catholic student to survive sectarian beating

Wednesday August 07, 2002 23:03

by McMean

A student is fighting for his life after being savagely attacked by a mob outside a nightclub in Portrush, County Antrim.

Chris Witson, from the Strathmore Park area of north Belfast,
sustained serious head injuries in the attack outside a nightclub
in Portrush at the weekend.

The man, a student at Dundee University in Scotland, was brutally
beaten by loyalists in the carpark outside the club, possibly because
he was wearing a religious medal.

Last night Father Gerry Cassidy, of St Gerard's parish, visited
the family at the Royal Victoria Hospital yesterday.

He said: "They are shocked that this has happened to their son
and are trying to come to terms with it. Anyone who knows the
family are distressed for them.

"Everyone is praying for him at this time."

UDA ATTACKS DERRY HOSTEL

A group of up to 100 loyalists attacked a hostel for the homeless
at John Street in Derry in the early hours of Friday. It was the
latest in a series of sectarian attacks in the Foyle Road area
over the last week.

The loyalists had been gathering in the nearby loyalist Fountain
estate late on Thursday night. And according to sources in Derry
the loyalist gang assaulted at least one person on the Craigavon
Bridge in what was described as a "totally indiscriminate
attack". The loyalists then provoked a confrontation with local
nationalist residents on Foyle Road.

SSinn Fein councillor Maeve McLaughlin accused the UDA of
instigating sectarian attacks and increasing sectarian tensions
in Derry. The trouble at the bottom of the Fountain at Wapping
Lane marked a shift in UDA tactics, she said.

McLaughlin also said that an "extremely worrying" aspect of the
latest incident was the fact that a number of loyalists involved
in this incident may have been armed".

Over the last three months UDA activity has been on the increase
around the Derry area with the loyalist commander for the
so-called North Antrim and Derry Brigade being seen in and around
the Fountain estate in recent months.

HEALTH WORKERS PROTEST

Hundreds of health workers yesterday staged demonstrations to
protest over paramilitary threats made against them at Belfast
hospitals.

The loyalist Red Hand Defenders, a front organisation for the
UDA, threatened to kill Catholic workers at the Mater and Ulster
Hospitals. The threat was accompanied by a recognised codeword.

A reported threat made against Protestant hospital workers in the
name of the "Catholic Reaction Force" has been dismissed as a
hoax, probably perpetrated by the UDA to depict a "tit-for-tat"
scenario.

The mood among health workers at the rally outside the Mater
Hospital was one of anger mixed with deep concern. A nurse who
did not want to give her name said: "We are all soft targets if
somebody really wanted to get to us. It's hard enough dealing
with violent drunks and the like on a nightly basis without this
hanging over our heads."