Woman officer critical after station attack

A policewoman was critically ill tonight 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 in the Irish Republic, 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 spokesman for the Garda Síochána, 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 tonight.

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 last 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.

“My officers, at the stage when they were dealing with him, were dealing with him as a member of the public who required assistance and was given assistance.”

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

Professor Rea said: “This was a vicious attack which has left two police officers with very serious injuries.”

The incident raised “very serious questions and I have asked the Chief Constable to provide a full report on the incident to the next board meeting”, he said.

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

“Serious questions must now be asked as to how this situation arose where officers were attacked at their place of work,” he said.

“Security at stations appears to have become so lax as to endanger the officers and civilians who work in them.

“This is an unacceptable situation and one that will have to be addressed.”

Patricia Lewsley, a nationalist SDLP councillor also 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,” she said.

“It is important that police stations become less like fortresses but we also have to ensure the security and safety of those who work in them.”

Ulster Unionist Lisburn councillor Ivan Davis, a former mayor, said: “I would want to wish the policewoman a very speedy recovery and also to the other constable who also suffered injuries.

“Any action like this has to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”