Family left in fear after siege

And now the family are living in fear after a two-hour long siege at their Allenhill home on Sunday night.

The couple, who have two young children aged four and two and a half, said they were under siege from a gang of around 30 thugs who physically assaulted them and attacked their home.

However, despite numerous calls to police, the pair said the PSNI told them they could not come out because of ‘the area they lived in and after the bomb on Saturday’.

The commotion began at around 9pm when the couple’s children were in bed asleep.

The gang of thugs gathered close to the couple’s home causing a disturbance, fighting among themselves.

“They were down there arguing and fighting and we stood at the gate of our garden. Then they started to scatter as someone shouted neighbours. We asked them to keep it down as we have children sleeping in the house. Some of them said, that’s fine while the other ones were very cheeky about it,” said the mum of two.

“And then it all kicked off. One of them said, ‘you are going to get murdered’. I asked him if that was a threat.

“Then one of them went for my partner,” she said, adding that the gang members were aged between 14 and 16.

“My partner just pushed him away in self defence. Then they started lifting fists. I was in the middle trying to push them away. I got hit on the head and chin and kicked on my neck and they hit me on my nose.

“The fella that was doing all the threatening and hitting started throwing bricks at the window and the door. Then he cut through the neighbour’s house and started shouting abuse,” she said.

The 34-year-old, who didn’t want to be identified, said she didn’t think he was local. “When they smashed the window they ran down to the bottom of the road and started shouting abuse.”

Her two and a half year old son was asleep below the window which was smashed. “It is double glazing and luckily only the outside pane smashed. The other bit saved him. I have just been thinking what could have happened.”

“They need to put alley gates up,” said her 33-year-old partner.

A PSNI spokesperson said police received a report of a man and woman assaulted by a group of youths at 9.43pm on July 19. At 11.08pm police received a further report of a window being broken by youths in Allenhill Park.

Inspector Ken Annett said: “Intimidating behaviour of this nature is not acceptable. This couple asked a group of youths to move on and were assaulted. A short time later a window in their home was smashed with a brick. There were two young children in the house at the time who could have been injured.”