Sustaining policing operation in Derry 'a challenge'

Extra police patrols have been deployed in the city after two reported attacks on women

Sustaining a policing operation aimed at providing greater protection for women in Londonderry after two reported attacks will be "a challenge", the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable has said.

On Friday night a woman was assaulted at knifepoint in Drumahoe, while on Saturday afternoon a woman walking her dog in Top of the Hill was approached by a man holding a kitchen knife. Extra officers were deployed in the city in the aftermath of the reported attacks.

"In simple terms we threw the kitchen sink at this and we continue to do so," Jon Boutcher told a meeting of the Policing Board on Thursday.

"The period that we can continue to do that is a challenge," he said.

'Extremely unusual and violent'

Mr Boutcher described the two incidents at the weekend in the city as "both extremely unusual and violent attacks".

Previously, PSNI Ch Supt Gillian Kearney, Derry’s most senior police officer, said the police response - which includes increased patrols in the city’s centre and parks – will continue for “as long as it has to".

The weekend attacks both happened in public parks in the Waterside area and the incidents were about 2.5 miles apart.

Jon Boutcher says they "threw the kitchen sink at this" in the response to the two attacks

Sinn Féin councillor Sandra Duffy, who sits on the local Policing and Community Safety Partnership, previously told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today that women were photographing taxis before getting in, sending their location to friends when out walking and arranging self defence classes.

She said there was a “real feeling of fear right across the city”.

Previously, Justice Minister Naomi Long also said people were distressed and angry following the attacks and that women were "terrified”.

“It’s unthinkable that women in this day and age can’t walk about in their own community, can’t go and do basic things without being under the threat of this kind of violence," Long said.

“We have got to tackle this epidemic of violence in our society targeted at women and girls.

"We have got to start tackling those attitudes and that culture that treats women’s lives as though they are expendable.”