A couple forced to leave their Belfast home with their special needs children following an arson attack by loyalists have said they believe they were targeted over attendance of an rally supporting immigrants.
The couple, who wish to remain anonymous out of concern for their family’s safety, have since relocated to a new home after the attack on August 15.
A work van containing thousands of pounds worth of tools belonging to the man was destroyed outside their house in a staunchly loyalist area of south Belfast, and they fled soon after with their two children out of fear of further attacks.
They told the Irish News they later learned the arson was carried out after the man was recognised by anti-immigration protestors at a demonstration in Belfast city centre to oppose recent racist attacks in the city.
In the days following the rally, their house was targeted with eggs being thrown, but they dismissed that as just children “messing about”.
However, the arson attack happened around two weeks after the rally, leaving the couple and their teenage children - both of whom have autism - “traumatised”.
“It was a normal evening routine of putting the children to bed,” the man explained.
“Later, my partner was upstairs and I’d fallen asleep on the sofa, when I heard a rap on the living room window. A neighbour had jumped over the fence and she shouted that my van was on fire.”
The couple called police and firefighters, and the blaze was extinguished, but extensive damage was caused.
“I’m a joiner by trade, and along with the van, tools worth almost £9,000 were destroyed. My business went up in smoke - I had five week’s worth of work lined up, and everything was gone,” the man said.
“But worse than that was the worry we were left facing in the days afterwards, as we thought - what’s going to happen next - why is this happening?”
The couple’s bafflement over why they were targeted was answered, they said, when they later learned the attack was aimed at the man for his attendance at the rally at the beginning of August.
They said they were advised by police to meet with a local restorative justice programme, and learned of the reason for the attack.
The woman explained: “At that meeting, we were told it wasn’t actually paramilitaries behind it, but I’m from the area originally, and I know it was sanctioned. The police later confirmed with the Housing Executive that paramilitaries were behind it, and we were relocated.”
The Irish News has seen correspondence from the Housing Executive to the couple in which it is stated police confirmed paramilitary involvement in the incident.
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The couple are now living in a new home in a different area, but say they and their children are struggling to come to terms with their ordeal.
“I had to explain to the children that ‘bad boys’ burned the van - it’s the only way to describe it without causing them more distress,” the woman said.
“My son is struggling with it all, and has been sleeping with me since it all happened. He’s getting counselling at school, but the fear is manifesting itself in his behavior there too. Normally he is a very docile, placid young fella, but he has been expressing a lot of anger, and that’s not who he is.”
The man said that he originally attended the rally to express solidarity with those in the community from an ethnic minority background being targeted during the summer unrest.
“Along with the fear is anger - I’m angry over what happened to me, I’m so angry over the harm that it’s brought to my family, so angry with the effect it’s had on my son,” he said.
“I can understand that a lot of other people might be angry over problems within their communities - there’s a lot of things going on in relation to deprivation, housing, access to healthcare - but you can’t be blaming that on immigrants. That’s the responsibility of the people who run our country.”
An online fundraising campaign has since been set up for the family by a friend, to help them following the loss of the man’s business.
A PSNI spokesperson said they were investigating the arson as a “sectarian hate crime”, stating: “Officers carried out a thorough investigation following various lines of enquiry and have liaised with the victim throughout.”
They added: “Paramilitarism has no place in our society and it is not the policy or practice of the Police Service to suggest any victim engage or negotiate with paramilitary groups or figures.”
