Boy Pleaded With 'UDA' Attackers

A loyalist paramilitary organisation that recently decommissioned weapons has been blamed for an attack on a nine-year-old boy's home in the North.

The finger is being pointed at the UDA in east Antrim by local mum, Lisa Moore, who said this morning she would have to move away from the area.

The development came after up to six masked men went through the family's house at Carmeen Drive in the Rathcoole area (pictured) at about 1.45am on Saturday, trashing rooms throughout the property.

Tyler, her son - who is just nine - had to plead with the gang not to beat him as they smashed up his home.

Despite desperately telling the thugs "My name is Tyler. I'm only nine years old, please don't hit me", the boy was struck with the bat.

His mother Lisa branded the attackers "cowardly" and explained that Tyler, who was kept in hospital for observation overnight, was now too scared to go home.

"They hit him with a baseball bat but they didn't give any reason why they were in my home - they trashed my home in a matter of minutes." she told the BBC.

"The only thing left is his TV in the bedroom - they threw his PC to the ground, they smashed toilets, sinks, every window in the house.

"While my house is in the state it's in, there's no point going back to it because there's nothing there - I may as well move and rebuild a life for myself and my son."

The family believe the attack on their Rathcoole home was carried out by the UDA.

But this was denied by local independent councillor Tommy Kirkham. Previously a member of the UDA-aligned Ulster Political Research Group, he said he still gives analysis to the South East Antrim UDA: "As an elected representative I condemn this attack," he said.

However, he insisted: "This had nothing to do with paramilitary groups; I have spoken to both the UVF and UDA in the area."

Alderman William DeCourcy of the DUP also condemned the attack and said it was wrong when a gang forces their way into a home and gives a beating to a young boy.

Mr DeCourcy emphasised the need to wait for the police to carry out their investigations into what had happened.

Last week, the dissident South East Antrim UDA is believed to have surrendered its arsenal of weapons in an act of decommissioning designed to pre-empt the paramilitary group's mainstream rivals.

General John de Chastelain personally oversaw the destruction of weapons by the breakaway loyalist faction, known as the South East Antrim 'brigade'.

The group and its political advisers in the Beyond Conflict group, headed up by Newtownabbey councillor Tommy Kirkham, have previously acted independently and been officially recognised by the government as a separate entity.

At the beginning of August, weapons, explosives and ammunition are all believed to have been handed over for destruction in front of observers from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).

(BMcC/KMcA)