>> 8 Oct 2004

ATTACKING THEIR OWN.



By Courthawk



Here's a story that is very typical of Northern Ireland. It is sad that this is still happening, but almost funny - the rioters were attacking "one of their own" without realising it! (Stupid is as stupid does. DV) Congratulations to the judge for an appropriate sentence. The story is from the News Letter:



"A Judge declared yesterday that those who indulge in intimidatory tactics to force families from their homes will face a " deterrent factor" in their sentences. Speaking after he jailed a man for 15 months for playing his part in intimidating a Catholic family from their north Belfast home, Belfast Crown Court Judge Tom Burgess said: "Its very prevalence demands that those who take part receive punishment to reflect their part . . . but such sentences need to have a deterrent factor addressed to anyone else minded to become involved."



Prosecution lawyer Philip Mateer had told him that John Patrick Magee, 49, was part of a crowd of people hurling sectarian abuse at the occupants of a house in Vandyck Crescent on October 12 last year, believing them to be Protestants whereas, in fact, they were a Catholic family. At the end of his Diplock, no-jury trial in July, Magee, from Veryan Gardens in north Belfast, was convicted of intimidation but acquitted of two counts of criminal damage, possessing a weapon and of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During the trial, the judge was told that the house had been attacked in the early hours, with the crowd breaking the windows with stones, smashing up the couples' car parked outside and shouting "Orange b*******" and "We know you are there" at the people inside.

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