Officer injured in bomb vows to return to work
By Diana Rusk and Seamus McKinney
Irish News
**Via Newshound
14/05/08
ATTACK AFTERMATH: Forensics officers at the scene of Monday night’s car-bomb explosion at Spamount Crossroads near Castlederg in Co Tyrone [PICTURE: Margaret McLaughlin]
A YOUNG Catholic police officer seriously injured in a booby-trap car-bomb has said he is determined to return to work.
He was supposed to have been playing in a match with his Co Tyrone soccer team last night but was instead recovering from shrapnel wounds to his legs and lower body.
While he was seriously injured and underwent emergency surgery, it is thought he will be able to walk again following the explosion as he drove through Spamount village, near Castlederg on Monday night.
The officer told his superiors from his hospital bed that he still believed he had done the right thing by joining the police service three years ago.
It is understood he moved into a new home in the Castlederg area with his girlfriend a month before being targeted by the bombers.
Police yesterday cordoned off the house as part of their forensic examinations. While police blamed dissident republicans for the attack, no organisation had formally claimed responsibility last night.
However, sources said it was carried out by fringe group Oglaigh na hEireann. The officer – whose name police are not making public – had just left his home and was on his way to start night duty at Enniskillen police station in Co Fermanagh when the bomb, attached to his car, detonated.
The bomb went off on the Drumnaby Road in an area popular with walkers at around 9.30pm.
A group of people rushed to the officer’s aid and dragged him from his car, which later went up in flames.
Adam Lyons (30), who had been driving along the road, said he heard a bang and thought he had driven over a football before he turned the corner and saw the officer lying beside his vehicle.
“He had a lot of shrapnel in the back of his legs and in his rear end. I think the guy was in shock but apart from that he was in a lot of pain and was talking,” Mr Lyons said.
“He said he was driving along and the car seemed to have exploded.”
The officer had been based in Co Fermanagh since joining the force, first in the Lisnaskea area before moving to the area headquarters at Enniskillen.
Originally from Omagh, he has written on a social networking website that his two “great passions” are
Liverpool FC and the Tyrone county GAA team. A member of the officer’s soccer team last night said he was “absolutely stunned” to hear news of the attack.
Chief Inspector Alywin Barton, the young officer’s area commander, stayed with him in hospital until the early hours of yesterday.
“We sat with him until 1.30am and he was very positive,” he said.
“He was clearly shocked and has physical injuries but I have no doubt he believes he still has a contribution to make.
“I believe it is his intention to continue and his faith that he has done the right thing and that those who did this to him are wrong remains.
“This officer sought out a career to make the community a safer and more enjoyable place to be and all these people can do is try to visit mayhem on him.”
Mr Barton said that the officer had proved himself a “very capable, intelligent young man who has an enormous amount to contribute to society in Northern Ireland”.
The bomb attack was widely condemned. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who last night visited the injured policeman, described it as spiteful, selfish and futile.
“It was conducted by people who have no mandate. They certainly have no strategy whatsoever and clearly they represent no-one,” the Sinn Fein MP said.
“There is a duty, a responsibility on everyone within society and indeed anyone who has information about this particular attack, to give the information to the police as quickly as possible.”
First Minister Ian Paisley said it was an attack on democracy.
“There can be no turning back to the dark days of the past,” he said.
Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said fingers of blame pointing to dissident republicans were “pointing in entirely the right direction”.
“They are out of date, out of time, and they are lashing out at an easy target, an easy target which will give them some sort of publicity,” he said.
“It will not put my officers off delivering community policing and it will not deter every member of the community who is in their right mind from working with us to deliver a safer Northern Ireland.”
