![\"Justice](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/a5a22682-be8f-4930-8cec-7cdde263710e.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt comes after the TUV\u2019s Timothy Gaston told a Stormont committee that he has raised serious concerns with Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton. <\/p>\n
“Any violence and all violence in Ballymena was wrong, but there\u2019s an element of that was underlying tensions and on the night, the police contributed to that starting by the way they handled the blocking of Harryville Bridge,\u201d he said on Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe large majority of people \u2014 there was only a small minority of people who were in Ballymena on the night to cause trouble \u2014 but yet the PSNI came out with this message that the whole thing was racist thuggery and far right.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Gaston said the narrative \u201callowed labels to be applied\u201d, which he described as \u201cdeeply misleading and deeply regrettable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped ensure the violence continued for several nights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Justice Minister took to social media to criticise the remarks. <\/p>\n
\u201cDisgraceful comments for any political representative. Such disorder is solely the fault of those who engaged in it,\u201d Alliance party leader Mrs Long posted on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cSuggesting @PoliceServiceNI contributed to what unfolded is despicable.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers actually placed themselves at risk to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland also took to social media to dispute the allegations made by Mr Gaston. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of our members, we totally reject the assertion being made that our officers in some way contributed to the disgraceful disorder scenes in Ballymena last summer,\u201d the body that represents rank-and-file officers posted. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t and don\u2019t always get everything right, but that in no way justifies the wanton violence and criminality that subsequently played out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Multiple nights of rioting in Ballymena back in June spread to other parts of Northern Ireland, including Portadown, Larne and Belfast, and have so far resulted in 100 arrests being made. <\/p>\n
The disorder erupted following reports of a young girl being sexually assaulted and saw police come under sustained attack, while properties housing ethnic minorities were targeted and destroyed. <\/p>\n
Mr Gaston acknowledged \u201chuffing and blowing\u201d in the chamber as he outlined his \u201clived experience and that of my local community where the Roma community came in and basically took over Clonavon\u201d.<\/p>\n
“People didn\u2019t feel safe to go down into Clonavon, ghettos were allowed to bed in.<\/p>\n
“This was on the doorstep of the police station \u2014 local people felt as if they were marginalised and people felt forgotten about\u2026 integration simply didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Executive Office committee chair acknowledged the \u201creally good point\u201d about social cohesion before Mr Gaston went on to express \u201cserious reservations\u201d about a police service that has been \u201ccaptured\u201d by ideology.<\/p>\n
The North Antrim representative also called for the force to be properly resourced and staffed with people in positions \u201cbased on merit\u201d and not skin colour or religion. <\/p>\n
Mr Gaston\u2019s comments on November 12 came before attempted rape charges against two Romanian teenagers were withdrawn by the Public Prosecution Service at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Naomi Long has reacted after comments made by the TUV\u2019s Timothy Gaston about how the PSNI handled riots in Ballymena.<\/p>\n
Belfast History Explained: The Story of the River Farset<\/p>\n
The 14 and 15-year-old boys had been accused of attempting to rape a schoolgirl in Ballymena on June 7, resulting in them being held in juvenile detention.<\/p>\n
A separate suspect was believed to have fled to Romania the next day.<\/p>\n
But criminal proceedings against all three were abandoned recently due to “significant evidential developments” in Belfast Youth Court.<\/p>\n
The PSNI was contacted for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes after the TUV\u2019s Timothy Gaston told a Stormont committee that he has raised serious concerns with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1211,23196,1144,1610,89258,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-619222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-antrim-news","9":"tag-brett-campbell","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland","12":"tag-timothy-gaston","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115681800831529674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}