12.1.04
Belfast Telegraph
INLA gang threatened to rape my son: mum
Thugs who attacked boy (14) 'were paedophiles'
By Jonathan McCambridge
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
12 January 2004
THE mother of a 14-year-old boy shot in north Belfast has branded the suspected INLA gang who terrorised her son as "paedophiles".
The boy, one of the youngest ever victims of a so-called punishment attack in Northern Ireland, is currently receiving treatment in hospital for a gunshot wound to his left leg.
He was abducted on Friday evening while playing with his 10-year-old brother near his Ardoyne home.
He was then subjected to an horrific five hour ordeal in which he was stripped, beaten and threatened with rape.
Parish priest Fr Aidan Troy has confirmed that the same youth was abducted and chained to a lamppost and covered in oil by the INLA last April.
His mother said: "They beat him and strangled him. He has the marks around his neck, and they also threatened to rape him. The language they used was filthy.
"They are scumbags and paedophiles, the lowest of the low. He thought he was going to be raped and killed.
"They accused him of dealing with loyalists, which is simply not true.
"My son is no angel but he goes about with a crowd and nothing ever happens to any of them. He's been singled out and targeted because some in the INLA don't like him. They'll stop at nothing to make his life hell. I could be burying my child today. It's just not right."
Fr Troy said the attack underlined the "policing vacuum" which exists in parts of north Belfast.
"This youth was tarred last year and now he has been targeted again. There is an ongoing situation which is obviously very difficult for the family to deal with.
"I am not naive, I know some of these boys are not angels but this is not the way to deal with anything."
The INLA has not admitted involvement in the attack but sources have indicated an investigation is being carried out by the Republican Socialist Movement.
INLA gang threatened to rape my son: mum
Thugs who attacked boy (14) 'were paedophiles'
By Jonathan McCambridge
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
12 January 2004
THE mother of a 14-year-old boy shot in north Belfast has branded the suspected INLA gang who terrorised her son as "paedophiles".
The boy, one of the youngest ever victims of a so-called punishment attack in Northern Ireland, is currently receiving treatment in hospital for a gunshot wound to his left leg.
He was abducted on Friday evening while playing with his 10-year-old brother near his Ardoyne home.
He was then subjected to an horrific five hour ordeal in which he was stripped, beaten and threatened with rape.
Parish priest Fr Aidan Troy has confirmed that the same youth was abducted and chained to a lamppost and covered in oil by the INLA last April.
His mother said: "They beat him and strangled him. He has the marks around his neck, and they also threatened to rape him. The language they used was filthy.
"They are scumbags and paedophiles, the lowest of the low. He thought he was going to be raped and killed.
"They accused him of dealing with loyalists, which is simply not true.
"My son is no angel but he goes about with a crowd and nothing ever happens to any of them. He's been singled out and targeted because some in the INLA don't like him. They'll stop at nothing to make his life hell. I could be burying my child today. It's just not right."
Fr Troy said the attack underlined the "policing vacuum" which exists in parts of north Belfast.
"This youth was tarred last year and now he has been targeted again. There is an ongoing situation which is obviously very difficult for the family to deal with.
"I am not naive, I know some of these boys are not angels but this is not the way to deal with anything."
The INLA has not admitted involvement in the attack but sources have indicated an investigation is being carried out by the Republican Socialist Movement.
