14-year-old plastic bullet victim in critical condition

MARTIN Murphy shakes violently as he stands in his underpants and shows you his injuries

MARTIN Murphy shakes violently as he stands in his underpants and shows you his injuries. Two days after he was beaten by, he alleges, the RUC, he is still afraid. His back and legs are covered in huge ugly, bruises.

Even the slightest movement is agony for him. His ribs are smashed. His face is black and blue and his jaw is cracked. He received 13 stitches in the head.

Mr Murphy (36) had left his mother's home in north Belfast on Sunday night and was heading to a friend's house for a few beers.

"I was walking along the Oldpark Road," he says. "There was a riot going on around the corner but I didn't see it. Suddenly, I was surrounded by RUC Land-Rovers, one knocked me over. The RUC just started hitting and kicking me ...

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"They were going nuts. They held down my hands and they beat me on the head with their batons. They took me into a jeep. They were even beating me as they threw me in."

Mr Murphy said he was terrified. "I thought they would kill me. I thought I was to die for going for a drink. It's not right that the police should beat people for no reason.

Mr Maurice Reid (62), an epileptic, lives on the Oldpark Road.

"I was sitting watching a video when I looked out the window and saw Martin being beaten. I ran out in my socks and asked the RUC if the young lad was OK. They started hitting me then."

He pulls up his shirt to show a big purple wound and serious bruising to his back.

Both men appeared yesterday at a Sinn Fein press conference. The party is calling for plastic bullets to be banned and for the RUC to be immediately disbanded.

Maire Walsh (13) sat silently through the press conference. She is unable to talk after being hit by a plastic bullet in Lenadoon. Gary Lawlor (14), who was injured in the same incident, is in the Royal Victoria Hospital in a coma. His condition is critical.

Maire's mother, Roseleen, said: "Maire had been to a wee disco with a friend and was saying goodbye to her. RUC Land-Rovers pulled up and she started to run. They fired plastic bullets. Maire was hit in the face.

Mrs Walsh said that her daughter's bottom row of teeth had been knocked out and that she was severely traumatised.

. In the 2 1/2 days from 6 p.m. on Saturday, police fired 2,400 plastic bullets. In a statement, the RUC said that its primary responsibility was the "protection of life, property and the preservation of peace.

The force expressed its regret when "violent circumstances necessitate the use of plastic baton rounds". However, it added: "The sad reality of life in our deeply divided society has been that on a daily basis police officers have been forced to stand against violent mobs engaged in serious disorder.

"The use of plastic baton rounds in the ongoing fierce and dangerous riot situations reflects our desire to use the absolute minimum force to maintain the peace."