Sleeping girl, two, shot during domestic row

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl was shot yesterday during what is believed to have been a domestic row in Northern Ireland.

The child was asleep when a man went into the house at St John’s Court in the staunchly nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, Co Armagh.

A police spokesman said: “A number of shots were fired into the ceiling and the baby was struck at least once.”

She suffered wounds to her groin area in the attack, which happened at around 3.30am, he added. She was taken to hospital in Craigavon where her condition was described as stable.

The girl’s father, another man and two other children escaped injury.

Detectives do not believe the shooting was sectarian.

Neighbours have claimed there was a domestic row at the house just before shots were heard.

Dolores Kelly, an SDLP councillor for the area, demanded urgent steps to combat the rising threat of attacks in the home.

“I am appalled by this. If it’s domestic violence, which it looks very much like, something serious needs to be done. Fourteen people in Northern Ireland were killed last year as a result of domestic violence and it seems to be on the increase,” she said. Meanwhile, a mother and daughter were in court yesterday charged in connection with the discovery of a loyalist bomb-making factory in Co Antrim last week.

Rosemary Robb, 44, and her daughter Tammy Robb, 19, were remanded in custody until February 7 on four charges of possessing explosives, firearms and ammunition. The equipment was found in the attic of the women’s home in Carrickfergus last Thursday as the police battle to keep fueding loyalist factions apart.