大象传媒 report on a sectarian attack in Larne, 16 October 2002
大象传媒 Presenter: A County Antrim man says he and his girlfriend have been ordered to leave their home by a masked gunman who attacked their house in Larne last night. During the attack, windows were smashed at the house in Upper Carncastle Road on the edge of the town's loyalist Craigyhill Estate. The man is a Protestant, his girlfriend, who has four young children between 4 and 16, is a Catholic. The man, who doesn't want to be identified, told Noreen Erskine what had happened:
There was a knock at the door, and then next minute the door went in. And then the person came in dressed in black, a balaclava, dressed in black, said 'Get down, get down'. I went down and he'd the gun to my head and a gun to my girlfriend's head. I just seen the gun and that was it. And then just I sort of froze. He says to me I had 24 hours, 24 hours to get out, out of Larne. He put the front window in, they put the bedroom window in, the back window in, and then done the door, kicked the whole door in.
Did they give you any indication at all of why they wanted you to get out?
It's because I'm a Protestant, right, and my girlfriend is a Catholic.
How many men were involved in this attack?
Well the person that came in, that was only one person. There could have been more outside. There could have been more outside or round the back or anywhere, but the front window went in, the upstairs window went in where we lie.
And how is your girlfriend now?
She's in a bundle of nerves, her nerves is wrecked.
And do you plan to stay in Larne?
No, I don't think I'll be staying in Larne, no.