Young people 'being groomed' into paramilitary violence

Young people are unaware that they are being "exploited and groomed" into criminal violence by paramilitary groups, a leading academic has said.

Petrol bombs were thrown at officers by young people at an illegal republican parade in Londonderry on Monday.

Dr Colm Walsh is from Queen's University Belfast's School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work.

He said some children in deprived areas are routinely targeted over many years to "incite and engage in criminality".

Shortly after Monday's Easter parade commenced in Creggan, petrol bombs and other objects were thrown at a police vehicle at the junction of Iniscarn Road and Linsfort Drive.

Masked youths were observed making petrol bombs and participating in the attack.

"This was a senseless and reckless attack on our officers who were in attendance in the area in order to comply with our legal duties," Ch Supt Nigel Goddard said.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said none of its officers were injured in the incident but described the violence as "incredibly disheartening".

Last week the PSNI said there was potential for public disorder over Easter, with "very strong intelligence" suggesting dissident republicans were planning attacks in Derry.

Dr Walsh said scenes in Derry on Monday were sadly unsurprising given recent research carried out by Queen's University Belfast.

"We have clusters of areas where violence is still quite endemic and young people are routinely incited to engage in criminality and violence," Dr Walsh told BBC News NI.

"One of the differences with the type of violence that we saw in Derry on Monday was that it was very publicly on display with a lot of media in the area.

"The scenes were pretty depressing given that we are approaching the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and we saw pictures circulating of young people involved that couldn't be any older than 12 or 13."

Dr Walsh said this was not just an issue in Creggan, but in various places across Northern Ireland.

Dr Walsh said paramilitaries in both loyalist and republican communities are "very good at fostering mistrust" and said that this can often "create an illusion of risk".

"Young people are looking for safety first and foremost and what paramilitaries are good at is creating an illusion that they are unsafe," he explained.

"Some young people still believe that paramilitaries perform some sort of function and part of that function is that they protect them and protect their communities because they can't trust other agencies to protect them," he said.

Dr Walsh said this fostering of mistrust is targeted and makes some young people think that "outsiders wish them harm and are a threat - like statutory organisations, particularly, the police".

He said the reason some young people then take to the streets is because they wrongly believe in a sense that they are protecting their own area.

He said coercion, intimidation, extortion and incitement into criminality can manifest in many areas and is something those living in these communities are often left to deal with on a daily basis.

Many children engaging in these acts do not fully understand the danger they are putting themselves in, said Dr Walsh: Many victims of criminal exploitation rarely see themselves as victims.

"There is a massive issue around safeguarding for young people caught up in this type of trouble," he said.

"This just doesn't happen over a matter of hours or days, young people are groomed into behaviours over months and over years."

Dr Walsh said more needs to be done to help make children engaging in these acts more aware they are being exploited.

He said a key finding of his research is that in the absence of capable guardians within schools, homes or community settings is when young people are at greater risk of exploitative adults.

"When you don't have those capable guardians there are other adults who will fill that vacuum and will try and incite the types of behaviour that we saw on Monday which will put them and others at risk."