A second Alliance councillor’s home has been attacked in retaliation for attempting to have a loyalist mural removed.
However, this latest attack on Carrick councillor Stewart Dickson’s home was much more serious than that suffered by Castlereagh councillor Sara Duncan on May 27.
Cllr Dickson’s Greenisland home was attacked by seven or eight men wearing balaclavas at about 1am this morning. Every window in the front of the house was smashed with bottles of paint and hammers, and both his and his wife’s car were wrecked.
Cllr Dickson and his wife were asleep when the attack took place. He said he heard a sound like a gunshot, but quickly realised it was the sound of smashing glass.
Cllr Dickson said: “I have been serving the entire community as a councillor in Carrickfergus since 1977, and never in all that time have I had to put up with anything like this before. I have helped others in similar circumstances, but I didn’t expect to be a target myself.”
“I believe this has happened because I made representations on behalf of a number of constituents to the police and Housing Executive about two UFF murals on Housing Executive property.”
“This was happening behind the scenes, not in the newspapers or media, and I had spoken to the Housing Executive only a few hours before to see if they could do anything about these very recently painted murals of gunmen.”
“I have been doing this for years, not just in relation to murals, but also paramilitary flags, as people in the area are fed up seeing symbols glorifying terrorism.”
“This had nothing to do with the election of Alex Maskey as Lord Mayor of Belfast. It had everything to do with standing up to paramilitaries.”
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