Watkiss, 24, and Luke Ridley, 23, are each charged with riotous assembly. Both men were released on bail after Belfast Magistrates' Court was told they have made full admissions. Police said the pair were captured on CCTV taking part in street violence in the Mount Vernon estate for up to 45 minutes on Monday.
Ridley, of Ross House, Mount Vernon Road, Belfast, was said to have lived in Northern Ireland for the last three or four years. The court heard Watkiss moved in with him last week in a bid to make a fresh start after ending a relationship in Wolverhampton. "He foolishly got involved to demonstrate he can fit in with the locals," a defence lawyer said.
The solicitor said Watkiss and Ridley have each accepted taking part in the rioting and will ultimately face punishment. Opposing their release, a police officer stressed tensions remained high across the city and beyond. But Deputy District Judge Bonita Boyd granted bail to both men. She imposed night-time curfews and banned them from being within 500 metres of any parade, protest or demonstration.
6 comments:
Grief, not content with our own idiots, now we need to import them too. Got to love the photo though :)
Heh, the photo amused me too. :)
Having read the article more closely, I'm amused to see I used to live within a stone (or brick, or petrol-bomb (take your choice)) of there. Though it's cleaned up immensely of late, the locals used to call it Mount Vermin.
Did you really?
Heh heh, Mount Vermin! :)
I did indeed, just past Fortwilliam. That's a funny thing about Belfast; there are distinctly suspect areas right next door to those which are secular, well maintained and most pleasant.
I've never been to Belfast.
I remember in the mid-eighties when the 'troubles' were really kicking off over there talking to the Northern Irish rep. of the company we both worked for.
I asked him how he and his family had been affected and he said similar to yourself.
He told me his daughter, then in her early 20s, who'd spent her whole life in Belfast had never seen nor experienced any trouble, moved to Paris. In her first week there a massive bomb exploded outside the block of flats she'd just moved into.
That was the first time in her life she'd even heard any kind of explosion. Thankfully she wasn't harmed.
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