A MAN was jailed for three years yesterday at Belfast Crown Court for his part in a loyalist mob attack on a family car nearly 18 months ago. The vehicle was attacked in the mistaken belief that the occupants were Catholics but when the truth was discovered the victims were released.
In his judgment Lord Justice MacDermott described what occurred as "a blatant act of gratuitous violence". William Felix Whitten (22), from Ballymacormick Road, Dromore, Co Down, was found guilty in a reserved judgment of hijacking and criminal damage.
The incident occurred shortly after midnight outside Dromore during loyalist protests following the standoff at Drumcree in July, 1995. During the trial in November Whitten was identified as the man who kicked in the rear window of the car and dragged a woman from the vehicle. Her two small sons were left on the back seat, and one received a cut to the head from broken glass.
The woman's elderly father was also pulled from the vehicle his keys were taken, and threats were made to burn the car before the family was recognised as Protestant and allowed to go.
Whitten was arrested some weeks later after the woman recognised him shopping in Dromore.
The court heard the woman's mother had suffered considerably because of the incident and had spent some time in hospital. The woman gave evidence that this, had been "the last straw" for her mother following the death of her son, a part time member of the UDR shot dead by the IRA in the late 1980s.
Whitten was given a concurrent 12 month term for criminal damage.
