A SENIOR RUC officer has described as outrageous and vicious a so called punishment beating in which metal spikes were driven through the elbows and legs of an 18 year old west Belfast man. Det Supt Ian Williamson blamed "Sinn Fein/IRA" for the attack, a charge which was denied by Sinn Fein.
It was the second such assault within 15 hours in the North.
The beating happened around midday yesterday when a number of men attacked the youth at Norglen Road, in Turf Lodge. He was handcuffed and his mouth was taped, according to police. Spikes were driven through his arms and elbows, they added.
The man was tied to garden railings during the beating. Local people who found him said the injured youth was in extreme pain. He was brought to hospital by ambulance where he was last night being treated for serious injuries.
Del Supt Williamson said he made no apologies for stating that the attack bore the hallmarks of a so called "Sinn Fein/IRA" punishment beating. He added that in the past 12 months 250 such attacks had been carried out.
Loyalist paramilitaries carried out 92 of these beatings, with republicans responsible for the rest.
Sinn Fein issued two statements following the beating. A Turf Lodge councillor, Ms Marie Moore, said Sinn Fein opposed such attacks. But clearly, she added, there was a serious gap in policing which needed to be urgently tackled.
She said nationalists must examine more "effective and humane responses to alleged anti social or criminal activity.
Mr Alex Maskey, another Sinn Fein councillor, rejected Det Supt Williamson's claim that Sinn Fein was in any way involved in the "brutal attack". "It is no surprise that a senior member of the RUC chooses to make such unsubstantiated claims or that he uses the language of unionism when doing so," he added.
"It is rhetoric like this which helped create a climate in which loyalist death squads, with the collusion of the RUC, killed many members of this party."
Dr Philip McGarry, a former chairman of the Alliance party, said the beating was vicious and barbaric.
In Strabane on Tuesday night, a 25 year old man was attacked by a gang wielding baseball bats and hammers as he was standing at Townsend Street at 9.30 p.m. Both his hands were smashed in the attack, and he also suffered general cuts and bruises.
