PSNI outlines progress of Paramilitary Crime Task Force

There were fewer paramilitary-style assaults in Northern Ireland in 2022 year than in 2021

More than 200 weapons and firearms have been taken off the street in Northern Ireland since the PSNI's Paramilitary Crime Task Force was set up in 2017.

The team targets loyalist and republican groups involved in a range of organised crime.

More than 900 searches had been carried out, with £3.8m worth of drugs as well as 248 weapons and firearms seized, said Det Supt Emma Neill.

More than 400 people had been arrested since 2017, she added.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland's most recent security bulletin revealed that of the 110 security-related arrests in 2022 under the Terrorism Act, 13 people were subsequently charged.

The figures also showed that there were fewer paramilitary-style attacks and shootings in Northern Ireland in 2022 than the previous 12 months.

Paramilitary-style assaults, as the PSNI describes them, are usually carried out by groups on "members of their own community as a so-called punishment".

'Trauma doesn't stop with injury'

Det Supt Neill called on victims of paramilitary crime to come forward to police.

"I understand that some victims will be reluctant because of the fear they suffer as a result of these attacks, fear for themselves, for their physical safety, fear for their family safety," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster.

"By not engaging with police, this has significant impact on police being able to identify those involved and gather evidence and prosecute.

"These are brutal and violent assaults and the trauma doesn't stop with physical injury - it impacts on their families, relationships and all aspects of the victim's life."

'I want to go to rehab'

Earlier this week, a man said he now feared his own shadow having been shot in the legs by paramilitaries following a fight with another man in a pub.

The man, who is known to police and has a criminal record, spoke of the impact of the attack on his life.

"It's bleak at the moment. I'm attending counselling every week and drug counselling," he told Good Morning Ulster.

"I want to go to rehab, that's the only thing I can think about at the moment, that and what actually happened to me.

"What happened to me has led me to taking Pregabalin, which the doctor prescribed me and I started eating them like Smarties.

"I'm addicted to them. I can't wait to get off them, I just want to try to see what normal life's like again."