Londonderry: Businessman left unconscious after parade assault

The daughter of a Londonderry businessman has said her father was "kicked like a football" and left unconscious in an assault by a member of the Apprentice Boys.

Gemma Lynch said her 51-year old father Damien was assaulted near his shop on Spencer Road at about 16:30 BST on Saturday.

She said he had been trying to stop the man urinating behind his shop.

PSNI Ch Insp Watt described the incident as a "nasty assault".

"The Apprentice Boy kicked my daddy right in the face like you would kick a football," Gemma said.

"Bandsmen, Apprentice Boys, and members of the public had been using the laneway as a toilet all day, and the smell was foul," she told BBC News NI.

Her father, she said, had been cleaning the laneway when the man approached.

Gemma added: "He went to use the laneway as a toilet and my daddy says to him, 'are you serious?'"

Her father was pushed, she added, before a scuffle broke out.

'Horrifying'

Mr Lynch at one point lost his footing and was on his hands and knees when the man "kicked my daddy right in the face like you would kick a football".

"He walked away and left daddy unconscious," she said.

Damien was left covered in blood, Gemma said. "It was horrifying".

"An animal wouldn't do that, I am so, so angry, if that is the kind of people the Apprentice Boys are inviting into the city then they need to have a look at what they are doing," she continued.

Her father was able to raise the alarm following the assault and was later treated in hospital.

A PSNI spokesman has asked anyone who witnessed the incident or has information to come forward.

Gemma said the incident has been recorded on CCTV and the attacker was clearly wearing an Apprentice Boys collarette. She said there had been very few police officers in the area at the time.

The BBC has unsuccessfully tried to contact the Apprentice Boys for comment.

The August parade in Derry is one of the largest in Northern Ireland

SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin said the incident was "deeply shocking".

"There is no cause for such a totally unacceptable and violent act and to think of his children seeing him in this condition is just awful," she said.

Thousands of Apprentice Boys marched in Derry on Saturday in what is one of the biggest loyal order parades in Northern Ireland.

It marks the anniversary of the ending of the Siege of Derry in 1689.

Meanwhile, police are treating a separate incident in which comments were made by a band member towards a member of the public as a sectarian hate crime.

It happened during a parade near Ferryquay Street in the city centre at around 14:45.

"Enquiries are ongoing," a PSNI spokeswoman said.