Two more arrested after sectarian murder

Another two men were arrested today for questioning about the brutal murder of a Catholic man beaten to death by a sectarian mob.

The arrests brought to 11 the number of men detained over the killing of Kevin McDaid, 49, in Coleraine, Co Derry, on Sunday evening.

All were picked up by police in the Coleraine area.

Another man injured in the attack was still fighting for his life in hospital today as the dead man’s widow appealed for no retaliation for his murder.

Mr McDaid, a cross community youth worker, was targeted by a gang of up to 40 men who entered a mainly Catholic housing estate following matches involving Rangers and Celtic.

His widow Evelyn, a Protestant, suffered serious head injuries when she tried to save him.

Standing at the gates of her home today the injuries were visible to all – two black eyes and a mass of cuts and bruises.

Yards away a shrine of Celtic football shirts and scarves and flowers bearing messages including “Rest in Peace” and “You will never be forgotten” built up at the scene of the murder.

Mrs McDaid said her husband would not want to see any more violence.

“He wouldn’t want retaliation for it,” she said.

“He wouldn’t want my sons to get hurt, he wouldn’t want this. He was trying to keep the peace, he didn’t want all this – the nonsense that’s been going on here for years and years. He wanted peace.”

She said the mob also beat up a pregnant woman during the attack.

Mr McDaid, a former plasterer, had three sons and a foster son. His widow said the family’s life had been shattered.

“My life’s over,” she said. “A big part of me is missing now. He was my soulmate and now that’s finished. I have to try to go on for the wee foster boy and my other three sons. I have to try and go on but I’ve lost a very big part of me and I can never replace that, never ever.”

Mrs McDaid said the attackers claimed they were from the loyalist paramilitary group the UDA as they beat her and her husband.

“He went down to see if his son was all right and he got badly beaten,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.

“UDA , they called themselves the UDA. I went across to help him and they beat me while they beat him. And then my neighbour had to step in to save me and she was pregnant and they beat her too and she shouted ’I’m pregnant’ and they didn’t care.”

She added: “It was all to do with religion, and I’m not even a Catholic. I am a Protestant, it’s a mixed marriage, but they just seem to hate us so much.”

Mrs McDaid also raised questions about the police response to the incident.

“They (the gang) could come into this town and they could do this and where was the police? The police knew this could happen and there was no police. They were fit to come across in cars and walk across them bridges and attack a house down there and they get away with it.”

Damien Fleming, 46, remains in hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted in nearby Pates Lane during the disturbances.