Paramilitary-style shootings on the rise in Northern Ireland

The PSNI said there were 19 victims of paramilitary style shootings over the past year

Paramilitary-style shootings are on the rise in Northern Ireland, according to statistics released by the police.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have said 19 people were victims of these shootings between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023.

In the previous 12 months there were only seven victims.

Megan Phair from the pressure group Stop Attacks described the increase as a "massive concern".

Paramilitary style shootings usually result in the injured party being shot in the knees, elbows, feet, ankles or thighs, police say, and the motive is supposedly to punish the person for antisocial activities.

These paramilitary style shootings are generally conducted by loyalist or republican paramilitary groups on members of their own community.

Previous figures show there were up to 22 casualties of paramilitary-style shootings per year since 2017, with incidences broadly declining over time:

• 12 casualties in 2021/22

• 18 casualties in 2020/21

• 13 casualties in 2019/20

• 19 casualties in 2018/19

• 22 casualties in 2017/18

'Grooming at its core'

Speaking to the BBC's Talkback programme Ms Phair pointed to funding cuts to the likes of youth services as a possible explanation for the rise in shootings.

"If you look across the board at the funding cuts that the youth service in particular have faced and multiple other services have faced, you can see the trends of the increase in violence because of a lack of space and place for so many vulnerable people," she said.

"Young people are groomed, radicalised, coerced, exploited and criminalised by these gangs."

Ms Phair said that "we have young people who maybe were targeted by paramilitary groups in the past who were shot or beaten are now members of the same groups".

She described this as "grooming at its core".

The PSNI have said that in September alone of 2023 there were five casualties of paramilitary-style attacks.

Det Ch Supt Andy Hill said the PSNI "remain 100% committed to tackling the cruel issue of paramilitary-style attacks"

Det Ch Supt Andy Hill, Head of the PSNI's Organised Crime Branch, said there has been an overall fall in all types of paramilitary attacks compared to 2018 and said that "while there has been progress, we are not complacent".

"We remain concerned about the continuing existence of paramilitary structures and groups, and their actions. And we, along with our partners, will relentlessly continue to target those groups and individuals who continue to exploit the most vulnerable in our communities," he said.

Det Ch Supt Hill said that the PSNI "remain 100% committed to tackling the cruel issue of paramilitary-style attacks".

However, he added that the "budgetary situation facing policing remains hugely difficult".