Catholic family survives gun attack
A man, his wife and their four children, aged 11 to 18, had gone to bed in Coleraine, Co Derry, when gunmen struck last night.
Five shots smashed through the living room window at Quickthorn Place in the staunchly Protestant Harper’s Hill. A petrol bomb was also thrown at a car parked outside but failed to ignite.
No-one was injured but the terrified family, who have asked not to be named, were deeply shocked and traumatised by the latest attack.
John Dallat, an SDLP Assembly member for the area, emerged from visiting the victims to denounce those behind the attack as nakedly sectarian.
“The thugs who did this don’t represent either community but are hell bent on inflaming sectarianism in an area that could do without it.”
It is understood the family, who are involved in community work , have lived on the estate for more than 30 years. In a previous sectarian attack last year a pipe bomb was hurled through a window in their home.
As a doctor treated the frightened family, Mr Dallat said they were now considering their future in the area. He vowed to raise the issue when an SDLP delegation meet Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy in Belfast. The talks were arranged to discuss the nationalist party’s fears that an on-going sectarian campaign was being waged against Catholics living in towns such as Coleraine and Larne, Co Antrim.
“It clearly will be a robust meeting,” Mr Dallat said. “Illegal guns have been loose in Coleraine for far too long and it’s time they captured the thugs using them and put them behind bars.”
Detective Sergeant Brian Logan of the PSNI said: “This is deplorable. This family were attacked by a pipe bomb last May.
