'Noose' left for DUP councillor

Police are investigating an attack on the County Down home of a veteran DUP councillor.

Councillor Woolsey Smith believes the attack was carried out by people from the unionist community, who are opposed to power-sharing with Sinn Fein.

A double glazed living room window was smashed, and a rope in the shape of a noose was left outside the house.

Graffiti was also scrawled on the home of his son, former Craigavon Mayor Councillor Robert Smith.

Woolsey Smith, who lives between Tandragee and Portadown, said the incident had left him badly shaken.

"It's very sinister and while the breaking of the window was something, the noose and the sensitive nature of that really upset me badly and I can hardly imagine that there are people out there so sick. It's very distressing for a man of my age, I'm 77," he said.

"I have slept very little from this happened."

Robert Smith had slogans painted across the front wall of his home on the same night. They read 'Traitor', 'Smith out' and 'DUP/IRA'.

"We lost our mother in '99 and my father lives here by himself," said Robert.

"I have my father who is a pensioner, vulnerable out in the country and has become a victim for political reasons."

Local DUP MP, David Simpson, has condemned the incident as a "despicable act".

"Woolsey is now in his 78th year and he's been a councillor for well over 30 years. I think right-thinking unionists would be sick to the pit of their stomach, if, and I emphasise if, the people that carried out this were, or are, on the fringes of unionism."