Derry family 'living in fear' following police raid of home

A Derry family have been left ‘living in fear’ following a police raid on their home.

The family, who live in the Creggan area of Derry, have been left traumatised by the actions of the police on Sunday, January 5.

The raid on their home came less than a day after two police officers came to their home to warn them that the father of the household had received a death threat from dissident republicans.

The couple said the one thing that stood out from the conversation with police was an officer's comment about the family having a secure door and good locking system.

She added that during the early raid, they were cable-tied and ‘herded like cattle’ by armed officers.

The woman said: “On the Sunday morning just after seven, we woke, and I looked out the window, and the street was all police, all wearing black.

“The next thing I knew, they were all in the house, but they wouldn’t come straight into the house.

“They busted open the front door, and they opened the inside door. They stood with shields, bulletproof shields, and guns pointing up the stairs, calling to us to come down the stairs with our hands on our heads, roaring and bellowing at us.

“When we came down, we were shoved on the chairs and sofa, cable-tied and herded like cattle into the middle of the room; they wouldn’t let us move.

“At that stage then a dog was brought in which had something on its back like a camera and some other device. The dog went through the whole entire house, and then these men, who had their shields and guns, went through the house, but you couldn’t see them; all you could see was the whites of their eyes, and only one or two of them spoke.”

She continued: “They went through the whole house; there were about 14 to 16 of them, and they went up the back, and then the next thing, more police came in, but these ones were TSGs (Tactical Support Group), so they came in, and it was handed over to them from the people that were already in here, and they left. 

“But before they left, they did a lot of pushing and shoving. As I had mentioned, they had cable ties on; one of them pushed my son and pushed us about, and then they went out.”

The woman said her family of four did not have time to pull clothes on before they made their way down the stairs, with both males in their boxer shorts.

The woman slammed the PSNI’s treatment of her family.

She said: “The way it went on and the way they behaved, I think that if he had have had close on him and had he not put his hands above his head, I think they would have shot him, that is the fear, honestly, I’m not just saying this, I genuinely believe that he would have been shot that is how bad it was.

“We were treated awful. I mean, we are used to being raided; it has happened to us all throughout our lives, from being teenagers right the way up, so we are used to raiding; we know what it is like and we know what it entails, but this was completely off the scale. 

“This was nothing like I had ever seen before, and the level of fear that they put into you, just by the whites of their eyes showing, not another thing, and then the guns pointed in your face, rifles pointed right at you.

“Searches, before because you grow up with them, you know what they are like. But this was not anything like that, and it needs to be highlighted; it was at a different level, and I had never experienced anything like it in all the years of the Troubles.”

The family was told that their house was being searched after the police had received a warrant to look for firearms.

The family questioned the PSNI’s motive for arriving at their home one day about a death threat, then raiding the premises for firearms the next.

The man said: “The timing of everything that happened, from the police coming, the warrant being signed a few hours later by a magistrate for them to come and search my home for a firearm after they had come and warned me, then to do what they did, busting that door down.

“When they were in here and when the TSG was here, I said to them, ‘Hold on a minute. You came here about a death threat, commented on how secure my front door was, you came the next morning, and you busted that door in that you had commented on', and then they told me after to get the door boarded up, put wood in to block it, leaving’ me with one exit and one entrance now, so if someone does come here looking for me, there is only one entrance and one exit, so whoever is going to be here is going to be killed.

“I don’t feel safe, not if you witnessed the other day, especially when they comment about how secure that door is and then they come and kick it in; it is madness.

“I said to the police, ‘See if anything happens with the death threat being given; if anything happens to the person that the death threat was for, I’m putting the full responsibility and blame solely on you (police), because of what happened.

“We are living in fear.”

The damage done to the door has left the family with a bill of £2,000 to get the locks and door replaced.

They said: “I own my own home, so therefore any damage I have to pay for it, the police won’t pay for it, although they say you can apply to the Northern Ireland Office. It had happened a number of years ago where they had done £1,400 to £1,600 worth of damage, and it took me over ten years to get a couple of pounds back, and I mean a couple of pounds.”

A spokesperson for the PSNI said: “Police conducted two searches at two properties in the Creggan area of Derry / Londonderry on Sunday, 5th January, as part of an ongoing investigation. Nothing was seized during the proactive policing operation.”

Commenting on the events Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said: “Another family traumatised by British policing, given that British policing has a history of collusion with loyalist and recently revealed criminal gangs, this incident is all the more sinister. 

“Only hours after delivering what appears to be a fictitious death threat, they carry out an operation akin to the operations carried out by their “special forces” in places like Afghanistan. 

“This discredited, unaccountable militia, 40% of whose budget is controlled by MI5, has been condemned consistently by human rights groups; whistleblowers from within have described it as sectarian, misogynistic, and racist.

“It strip-searches children, has a child informer recruitment policy, and terrorises children with stop and searches and aggressive house raids. It has leaked staged photos of people who have taken their own lives and mocked and made fun of them. 

“This is a far cry from their propaganda of smiling peelers helping old ladies. 

“Those within the political, religious, and community spheres who champion British policing in Ireland enable this type of behaviour with their complicity.”