Paramilitaries have no place in normal society - McCarthy

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 29th Oct 2005

Strangford Alliance Assembly Member Kieran McCarthy has hit out at those who carried out two similar paramilitary-style attacks on the Ards Peninsula on Friday [28 October].

Alderman McCarthy stated: "We are becoming far too used to waking up at weekends to more reports of paramilitary-style shootings. But we must never come to accept these as somehow 'normal' - they are not, and they must be stopped entirely.

"Two young men in their 30s have suffered serious leg injuries as a result of attacks in Newtownards and Kircubbin. This brings grief to families, and shame upon the whole area. We do not have to accept this, and we must not accept it.

"We in the Alliance Party are seeking a fully normalised and democratic society - and democracy includes a system of justice carried out exclusively through the law courts."

ENDS