15.2.05
Daily Ireland
**In my opinion, to force you to give a DNA sample merely because the PISSNI decide to haul you in is outrageous. What they are doing is collecting a database on everyone to use against them now and in the future.
And they call this a new start to policing
The mother of a Belfast teenager arrested for daubing graffiti on a condemned barracks says he was treated, “Like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy”.
The PSNI deployed four unmarked cars and three Land Rovers to arrest 17-year-old Pádraig Ó Mearáin after he painted a slogan in Irish on the wall of Andersonstown barracks.
After being pursued and arrested close to the scene, the teenager was taken to Grosvenor Road barracks, where he says he was stripped, placed in a boiler suit and swabbed for DNA.
Pádraig Ó Mearáin painted the old Gaelic battle cry, ‘Fágaigí an Bealach ag Slóite na bhFiann’ (literally ‘Clear the Way for the Warrior Legions’) on the wall of the barracks, which has just been closed by the PSNI.
“I was placed in a boiler suit, and given a pair of flip-flops because the PSNI said that my clothes would be needed for forensic evidence,” Mr Ó Mearáin says.
“They then took my fingerprints and my DNA.”
Pádraig’s mother, Úna Ní Mhearáin, told Daily Ireland, “It was a very distressing experience to see my 16-year-old son in a boiler suit and to have to advise him to submit to DNA sampling which goes against all my parental judgement. “I was told that if I didn’t give consent, they would hold him down and force him to give a sample. That is not consent in any way that I know it.
“I am just hoping now that good counsel prevails and that this thing doesn’t go any further.”
In a statement last night, the PSNI confirmed that the incident had taken place and that Mr Ó Mearáin’s DNA was taken after his arrest on Friday 21 January, on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
He has been released from custody pending reports.
“He was treated like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy because he was painting slogans on a PSNI barracks wall,” his mother added .
**In my opinion, to force you to give a DNA sample merely because the PISSNI decide to haul you in is outrageous. What they are doing is collecting a database on everyone to use against them now and in the future.
And they call this a new start to policing
The mother of a Belfast teenager arrested for daubing graffiti on a condemned barracks says he was treated, “Like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy”.
The PSNI deployed four unmarked cars and three Land Rovers to arrest 17-year-old Pádraig Ó Mearáin after he painted a slogan in Irish on the wall of Andersonstown barracks.
After being pursued and arrested close to the scene, the teenager was taken to Grosvenor Road barracks, where he says he was stripped, placed in a boiler suit and swabbed for DNA.
Pádraig Ó Mearáin painted the old Gaelic battle cry, ‘Fágaigí an Bealach ag Slóite na bhFiann’ (literally ‘Clear the Way for the Warrior Legions’) on the wall of the barracks, which has just been closed by the PSNI.
“I was placed in a boiler suit, and given a pair of flip-flops because the PSNI said that my clothes would be needed for forensic evidence,” Mr Ó Mearáin says.
“They then took my fingerprints and my DNA.”
Pádraig’s mother, Úna Ní Mhearáin, told Daily Ireland, “It was a very distressing experience to see my 16-year-old son in a boiler suit and to have to advise him to submit to DNA sampling which goes against all my parental judgement. “I was told that if I didn’t give consent, they would hold him down and force him to give a sample. That is not consent in any way that I know it.
“I am just hoping now that good counsel prevails and that this thing doesn’t go any further.”
In a statement last night, the PSNI confirmed that the incident had taken place and that Mr Ó Mearáin’s DNA was taken after his arrest on Friday 21 January, on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
He has been released from custody pending reports.
“He was treated like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy because he was painting slogans on a PSNI barracks wall,” his mother added .
