Policewoman critically ill after station attack

A POLICEWOMAN was critically ill last night after a man who sought refuge at the station where she was working bludgeoned her with a 5ft-long steel bar.

The mother of three was attacked in the police station at Lisburn, Co Antrim. The 31-year-old man, from Kildare, had got into the station some hours earlier by telling detectives he was in fear of his life.

After spending some time in the station he slipped through a security door into an office where the 54-year-old full-time reserve constable was on duty alone and lashed out, striking the woman officer repeatedly on the head with the heavy bar.

A Garda spokesman said officers in Kildare were checking to find out if the man had a history of mental illness. Police Service of Northern Ireland Superintendent Gerald Murray said officers at Lisburn were shocked by the savagery of the unprovoked attack.

"We had no reason to suspect that he was involved in anything," he said. "He was a member of the public coming in and we were assisting him."

Two policemen were also hurt when they confronted the man in a corridor in the station near where the woman officer lay critically injured.

A constable needed eight stitches in a head wound, and a sergeant suffered bruising to his wrist.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Victoria Hospital said the policewoman, who is from the Lisburn area, remained critically ill last night.

Police confirmed that a man was likely to face charges in connection with the attack.

Mr Murray said an ambulance had picked the man up on Sunday night at a diner on the main Belfast-Dublin A1 road just outside Lisburn. It took him to Lagan Valley Hospital, where he asked for help from the police, saying he was in fear of his life.

A detective sergeant went to the hospital and took the man to Lisburn police station, where he sat calmly for three to four hours drinking coffee and talking to officers.

But he then made his way to the secure area of the building shortly before 2am, when the public inquiry desk was not attended, before launching the attack.

Mr Murray denied that security at the station was lax.

"Police stations are considered, and are, places of safety," he said. "This man came for our help and our aid. This was an unforeseen attack, but police stations are like any other building they are secure, but there's no such thing as 100% security."

Northern Ireland Policing Board chairman Professor Desmond Rea called for a full report from Chief Constable Hugh Orde.

Democratic Unionist Policing Board member Ian Paisley Jr called for an urgent review of security at all police stations across the North.

SDLP councillor Patricia Lewsley condemned the attack on the officer to whom she had spoken to just two hours before: "Here we are, working towards opening police stations up and make them more accessible and part of the community, but an incident like this sets that process back."