Film extra left for dead
A Belfast teenager has told UTV how he thought he was going to die at the hands of a 15-strong gang in the Village area of the city, after they attacked him as he left the film set he was working on as an extra.
James Turley, 18, was confronted by the mob shortly before 4pm on Friday - in the Donegall Road area where a production team had been filming a scene for The Good Man, starring Irish actor Aidan Gillen.
The young movie extra, who is from the Short Strand, was dumped semi-conscious into a wheelie bin and heard one of his attackers declare: "I think he's dead."
James had tried to escape after the car he and four of his friends, all aged between 16 and 18, were travelling in was surrounded and damaged. A window was smashed and a wing mirror pulled off.
While the other teenagers managed to run away, James was caught - despite trying to hide in a nearby house, calling on the family: "Please help me - they're going to kill me."
I started to come around and then I heard them saying: 'That's enough. I think he's dead'.James Turley
He told UTV he could hear one of the gang shouting: "There's a Taig in there", before they all entered the house and dragged him outside as they beat him.
"The woman (the householder) said: 'Get him out of my garden' and they dragged me out into the alley," James recalled.
"They stamped on my hands, my face. They put me in a bin and were pushing me somewhere. I didn't know where I was going ... When I got put in the bin, I thought that was it.
"I think they realised they couldn't beat me when I was in the bin. They kicked or pushed it over and dragged me out of it and started beating me again."
James, who was knocked unconscious at one point during the attack, managed to get away but the gang kept chasing him until he ran out in front of a car.
The first driver he encountered didn't stop, but a second woman let him into her car and drove him the short distance to the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital.
His mother Donna, whose husband Frank was murdered in 1998, said she thought her son had been killed as she rushed to be by his hospital bedside.
"It's like déjà vu," she said. "I can't remember getting to the hospital. I just kept thinking: 'Please, please, just let him hang on for me'."
The chairman and the CEO of Northern Ireland Screen, Rick Hill and Richard Williams have both spoken out against the attack and said their thoughts were with James, his family and the other crew involved.
"We understand this was an unprovoked attack on a group of young men who were part of the growing positive story of Northern Ireland's burgeoning creative industries," they said.
"This has been a regrettable event and not one which is typical of the industry here, where increased film and television production activity has completed without incident."
Film producer Susan Picken, said that everything had been done to ensure the safety of the cast and crew, adding: "We did have a lot of crew who were looking after them, and we were basing ourselves out of a local community centre - we had liaised in advance with the local community."
We were safe in our own minds that we had done enough to look after everybody.Susan Picken, film producer
Pottinger Alliance Party councillor Máire Hendron said she was "shocked and appalled" by the news.
"This must have been a terrible ordeal and my thoughts are with the person who was subjected to this," she said.
"The stark contrast between the role this person is playing compared to the brutal and disgusting message that this attack sends out is deeply shocking."
Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey said the incident had caused "serious concerns for community relations and safety issues in that part of the city".
"Many of us have spent the last number years working hard to establish far better community relations in the area and we know that this attack is not representative of where the community in south Belfast wants to be," he added.
His party colleague and Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile said a number of people were left "deeply traumatised" by the incident.
He said: "We are rightfully encouraging our young people to take part and pursue careers within the new and creative industries - themselves potent symbols of a changed and better Belfast - yet there is still a minority who would seek to engage in sectarian violence.
"We will continue to play our part with everyone in our community to ensure those people are faced down and that young people, regardless of where they come from, are able to move around their own city free from sectarian harassment and violence."
Ulster Unionist councillor Bob Stoker also branded the attack "absolutely despicable".
He added: "I think it is nothing short of wanton thuggery and these people have to be dealt with by the community, by the police and by the court system.
"They are in no way representative of this community. We need people to stand up and have the courage to say, 'I saw them doing it and I'm going to identify them'.
"The community will be completely in support of anybody who does this."
Police are investigating the attack.
© UTV News
Disgusting bastards, and it's appauling the woman told them to get him out of her garden. I hope they burn in hell.
) countries in the west and the article specifically pointed out that out of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales the most intolerable of the four was Northern Ireland.
