Boy injured in sectarian attack

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy was recovering in hospital in Belfast yesterday following a five hour operation to save the sight of his left eye after he was injured in a sectarian attack.

The Protestant boy was a passenger in a car with his father returning from an Orange Order parade on Saturday evening, when the vehicle was pelted with stones.

The incident happened at 9.45pm as the silver Hyundai they were travelling in passed through the junction of Cromac Street and East Bridge Street. As the vehicle drove past, stones were thrown by a gang of youths who had gathered in the nationalist Markets area. One stone smashed the window of the passing car striking the boy in the face.

He was named as Curtis Martin by the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast where he is under sedation. His mother, who has not been named, appealed to other parents to help find those responsible.

She said: “If they could just see the damage they have done to a lovely little boy. If anyone knows who did this, I hope they’ll come forward, especially if they are parents themselves.”

Chief Inspector Colin McLean said the incident was unprovoked and “something we thought we would have been moving away from”.

“The child was in a Rangers top and he was with his father who was in his band’s uniform. They had been travelling back from the band parades that had been taking place that day. For that reason we believe that this was a sectarian incident.”

The attack was condemned by politicians from both sides.

South Belfast MP the Rev Martyn Smyth said: “It is typical of what has been happening at different times in south Belfast and other places, where young folk have been attacking cars. Sometimes it is indiscriminate and at other times it is deliberate, when the car has occupants that the attackers don’t like the look of. Both communities are engaging in this but from what I can pick up it is mostly coming from the nationalist side.”