Dad 'kicked in head' as Apprentice Boys paraded to buses

A Derry businessman has been “kicked in the head” by a man believed to be a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry.

The incident took place on Saturday afternoon at the Vivo shop on Spencer Road in the Waterside area of the city, following the Apprentice Boys’ Relief of Derry parade. 

Just minutes earlier, Damian Lynch (51) who owns the shop, had finished hosing and disinfecting the laneway adjacent to his premises. 

Speaking to Derry Now, Damian’s daughter Gemma, explained that the stench from the laneway had become unbearable as “marchers” had been urinating there all day.

Gemma who was also working in the Vivo on Saturday said she had gone outside a couple of times on Saturday to get a breath of air because the shop had been so busy.

She added: “There was a steady stream of marchers going up the laneway at the side of the shop, which takes you to the Quarry Steps, to urinate, even though there were women and children everywhere and there were portaloos available in the car park, although not as many as in previous years.

Attack on Derry businessman condemned

PSNI are investigating the assault following the Apprentice Boys of Derry parade on Saturday evening

“The smell was overpowering. It was disgusting. They were just urinating into our yard at the back of the shop. I spoke to them but it made no difference.

“My Daddy also went down to Victoria Gate a couple of times and asked the on-duty PSNI officers to intervene. There were PSNI members sitting in landrovers and police cars. They told him they would get somebody to come up to the shop but nobody appeared. In fact, there was no police presence on Spencer Road all day.

“At about half four, we started to do our cleanup, putting the shop back to the way it normally is. My Daddy went up the laneway, which the marchers had been using as a toilet all day, with the hose from the yard and a bottle of bleach to clean up. He had just finished when a person we believe was a member of the Apprentice Boys, because he was wearing a suit and a sash, came up the lane. Daddy said, ‘Are you serious? I’ve just cleaned up there. There are portaloos in the car park’. The man, who was in his 40s, more or less told Daddy he was going to the toilet in the laneway whether Daddy liked it or not, but not as politely as that,” said Gemma. 

According to Gemma some water from the hose sprayed his feet and the man became angry.

“He came over and got into my Daddy’s face and started pushing him. My Daddy was saying, ‘Gone on with yourself’ but the man kept pushing. 

“My Daddy went to walk away and come back into the yard and forget about it but the man came at him again and pushed him. 

“Daddy slipped in the water and he fell down on his hands and knees and this Boy just came and kicked my Daddy one awful boot up the face, the way you would kick a football. He knocked my Daddy out and just left him lying on the ground. He just walked on. Daddy thought he was kicked in the mouth. 

“Unbelievably, he joined the back of the lodge he was with, which was from outside the town, and they marched out the Prehen Road to get on their bus to go home, as if nothing happened,” said Gemma.

Damian managed to get himself down the ramp at the back of the yard and in through the back doors of the shop.

Gemma said although she is normally good in a crisis, she got a fright when she saw her Daddy’s face.

“It was pure red and covered in blood,” she said. 

Damian got home from A and E in Altnagelvin late on Saturday night. 

“He is in terrible pain,” said Gemma on Sunday night, “and he is still groggy.

“Thankfully nothing is broken but when we showed the doctor in A and E the footage of the assault, he said he didn’t know how nothing was broken Daddy was hit with such force. He has also hurt his leg in the incident and is now on crutches.”

Gemma said, after the initial shock and disbelief, she and her Daddy were “very angry” about what happened. 

“There are no words for how angry I feel,” she said. “I know that not all bandsmen and Apprentice Boys who come into the town are like this person but it just takes one bad apple.

“What if any of the people he was along with had run up the laneway yesterday and saw what was happening? It doesn’t bear thinking about. We might be dealing with something a whole lot worse today. He was in his 40s, an older man. He should have known better.

“If the police had sorted out the public urination situation like Daddy asked twice on Saturday, this would not have happened,” said Gemma.

Following the assault on her father, Gemma ran to the traffic lights at Duke Street to try and find a police officer to flag down. 

She added: “There were no PSNI officers to be seen. I also have to say, if there had been any bluelight emergencies on Spencer Road on Saturday, if anyone had had to ring 999 for an ambulance, fire brigade or the police, none of their vehicles would have been able to get through. 

“A member of the public or anyone living in the apartments on Spencer Road who might have needed help would not have got it yesterday. It was a disgrace the way it was handled.”

Gemma said her father had to wait for two hours at the shop until a PSNI officer wearing a body camera was able to come along and take a video statement from him. “The PSNI were caught in traffic behind the bands, so it was 6.30pm before they arrived and my Daddy could get to hospital,” she said. 

Gemma said her father had previously expressed his concern at the lack of policing on Spencer Road on Saturday to a police sergeant who was following the parade on motorbike. 

“He told my Daddy he would write it in his report that Daddy had spoken to PSNI officers and asked for help and he was not satisfied with the police presence,” said Gemma.

She added: “Someone in Spencer Road after Daddy was assaulted flagged down two Apprentice Boys marshals, who we believe are from the Derry Lodge. 

“I think they are going to try and do something but, other than that, no-one from the Apprentice Boys has contacted us.

“Daddy has been working the Twelfth for the past 20 years and I have been doing it for about 15 years and that is the first time we have ever had trouble.”