Sinn Fein man awarded damages

Police and nationalists clashed at the west Belfast parade

A Sinn Fein assembly member has been awarded £9,000 against the RUC for a head injury he received when struck by a baton.

North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly was injured at an Orange Order parade in west Belfast last June.

The case against the police, which was due to be heard at Belfast Recorder's Court, was settled outside court.

Mr Kelly won £4,000 in damages in an out-of-court settlement against the RUC last year for a similar action brought for an assault on him by the police at a protest against a loyalist parade in north Belfast in 1996.

Gerry Kelly: Wounded in the back of the head by police baton

Mr Kelly said he had to have three stitches in his head wound and had lost a lot of blood in the latest incident.

He said that although the policeman could be clearly identified, he had not been prosecuted.

"I have no doubt that this guy could have been identified and they have not pursued this investigation in that fashion."

Mr Kelly had sued for £15,000. However, outside the court he said he thought his injury was worth about £3,000.

"The rest is what you might call exemplary damages," he said.

The judge is to rule later on a police application for the return of a video of the incident which Mr Kelly wants to keep.

"The video shows it very clearly which is why they settled.

"There's a legal issue here. Why can't I have a discoverable document."

Confrontation

There was trouble at the parade on 24 June after loyalists set up a tannoy system playing loyalist music as the Protestant order's parade passed a nationalist interface area as it emerged from Workman Avenue and proceeded up the towards the Whiterock area.

Mr Kelly was injured as he and other Sinn Fein representatives tried intervene as nationalist residents and protesters confronted the police.

The parade through the flashpoint area had been preceded by a week of tension with nightly clashes between loyalists and nationalists in north Belfast at the beginning of the Protestant loyal order marching season.

Award criticised

Norman Boyd of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party criticised the award to Mr Kelly.

He called for the compensation system to be changed to prevent similar payouts.

Mr Boyd said it was unfair when victims including "widows of security force members murdered on duty have received no compensation".