‘As far as we are concerned the dissidents are the law’

ON Craigavon’s Ardowen housing estate, as a mother protested about police heavy handedness and youths taunted officers following the brutal slaying of one of their colleagues, it had the distinct feeling that the bad old days had returned to Northern Ireland.

The estate of corporation houses and flats is separated from Lismore Manor, where 48-year-old Constable Stephen Carroll was gunned down on Monday night near an expanse of grass and a small stream.

Yesterday afternoon houses in the estate and nearby Drumbeg were the focus of PSNI officers’ attention as, armed with semi-automatic rifles, they raided homes searching for people connected to their colleague’s killing. A police helicopter circled overhead.