Driver who hit girl at riot to be charged with attempted murder

The driver of a car which injured a 16-year-old girl in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast on Monday evening is to be charged with attempted murder, PSNI assistant chief constable Stephen Martin said on Tuesday.

He would not be drawn on whether the man was a member of the Orange Order.

The teenage girl was said not to have life threatening injuries but was trapped under the car which had to be lifted by police officers to release her. An older woman at the scene suffered injuries to her wrist.

The assistant chief constable revealed that a police inspector who was hit by a large block which “effectively severed his ear” is to undergo surgery.

A second police officer who received 12 stitches after being bitten on a finger was told by medical personnel that if he hadn’t been wearing motorcycle gloves he would have lost his finger.

In a media update assistant chief constable Martin said a total of 25 police officers had been injured in incidents in Belfast on Monday, with five injured in the city centre area and the remaining 20 during violent clashes in north Belfast.

Ten arrests had been made, seven of them male, three female. Six were still in custody. One had appeared in court, one had been released on bail, and one had been released.

Five plastic bullets had been fired and two water cannon used at the Woodvale Park area of north Belfast, he said.

Police were now reviewing images taken at the scene and those who had been involved in the disorder could expect to hear from the PSNI over coming days.

He did not believe there was any paramilitary involvement in the violence or that it was orchestrated and praised community activists on both loyalist and nationalist sides for attempting to quell the violence.

In particular he thanked Fr Gary Donegan and Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly for helping contain the situation on the Crumlin Rd in Ardoyne when the 16-year-old girl was hit by the car.

There had been breaches of Parades Commission determinations by orange bands as they passed St Matthew's and St Patrick's Catholic churches and this would be reported to the Commission.

Pointing out that at one point PSNI officers had been dealing with violence on three fronts, he praised them for the professionalism and courage.

He felt it regrettable that the Orange Order did not play an active role in marshalling parades on Monday while acknowledging that what happened was not what the Order would have wanted.