Ardoyne rioter given jail term

Published Tuesday, 03 July 2012

A 19-year-old man has been jailed for five years for taking part in rioting at Ardoyne shop fronts on 12 July last year.

Judge Tom Burgess has warned those found guilty of rioting will be jailed. (© UTV)

Sentencing Ruairi Muldoon to serve two years behind bars and three on licence, Belfast Crown Court Judge Tom Burgess repeated his warning that involvement in riots leads to jail.

Police came under sustained attack during three nights of trouble in the area during last year's Twelfth parades.

"This was a dreadful riot, businesses were badly damaged, residents put at risk and the level of fear must have been enormous," said the judge.

He added seeing the recorded footage would "frighten anyone".

Earlier he heard that Muldoon, from Fortwilliam Demesne in Belfast, had pleaded guilty to charges of riot and throwing a petrol bomb.

Prosecution lawyer David Russell said that just days before the incident, Muldoon had been involved in throwing stones at police on the Limestone Road.

On 12 July he had been recorded throwing bricks three times, pushing a sofa onto the road and throwing one petrol bomb in the 23 minutes he was present at the scene in north Belfast.

Comments

7 Comments

henry in north belfast wrote (325 days ago):

re,comber poster, take it you took the time to read peters post, rules for one side and rules for the other, can anyone tell me how many loyalist protesters have been charged after they attacked cars leaving the cityhall last year(zero) bigots to the core and trying their best to bring us back to the auld stormont days of unionist rule in every department going and if they dont then dont worry because the auld nudge nudge wink wink can always be relied on

in comber in comber wrote (325 days ago):

henry in north belfast, i could not careless what these so called rioters get in jail time,this man along with the rest of the scum all deserve to be sent to prison,i know some are first offenders but if everyone knew that they faced jail , things might be different?judges should be told to give them all time, no exceptions.

jackie in belfast wrote (325 days ago):

@ henry you seem to have no problems with the annual 12th july riots at the ardoyne shops.This guy lives about 3 miles from there so it was hardly on his doorstep.I noticed he also liked to do a bit of rioting on the limestone road hardly next to him either,seems to me he is a bit of a serial rioter, prison best place for him.

@ comber poster, it does not matter what side of the fence they come from and fair play for that comment but if you take more of an intrest into these matters you will find that oneside of the fence seems to be more hounded than the other which now means that it does matter and theres no fairplay in that

Peter in Armagh wrote (325 days ago):

Last month, a loyalist convicted of rioting and attacking police on the Newtownards Road received a suspended sentence. Meanwhile nationalists convicted of rioting in Ardoyne receive long prison terms. Some things never change in Northern Ireland.

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