SDLP councillor and son targeted in gang attack

A GANG attack on an SDLP councillor in Derry was being investigated by the police yesterday.

Sean Carr and his son were targeted by up to 20 teenage boys and girls in the city centre on Friday night as they went to a charity auction.

It was another in a series of violent weekend attacks in the city which saw a man taken to hospital on Saturday suffering from serious injuries after being beaten up.

Mr Carr blamed drink for the problems: “They were running around like a pack of wolves. They were highly intoxicated or on drugs, it’s difficult to tell. They seemed to be out of it, they didn’t realise what they were doing.”

He said the gang attacked his son first and when he went to intervene he was beaten up as well.

“It was very terrifying at the time,” he said.

Mr Carr suffered a black eye and “lumps and bumps around the head”.

He said the attack on his son was a continuation of something that had been going on at school. “It is basically down to my politics that he suffered.”

Mr Carr said he had reported the attack to police, but hoped to talk to the teenagers’ parents later in the day.

Drunken youths have been behind much of the trouble in Derry City centre on Friday and Saturday nights and Mr Carr said the council was trying to find a solution to the problem and cut off the supply of alcohol to underage drinkers.

“We in Derry City Council have written to off-licences and bars,” he said. “It’s a major, major problem. We have to start somewhere and, hopefully, we can do something about it.”