SINN FEIN assembly Sue Ramsey says she may take a case of malicious prosecution
against the police after a court case against her collapsed this week.
Ms Ramsey had been charged with criminal damage and assault following an
incident at the former RUC station on the Springfield Road on April 1 2000.
Around 50 people had gathered outside the station following reports that it had
been abandoned and a number of for-sale signs were pasted onto the walls of the
station.
Ms Ramsey said yesterday the demonstration had actually broken up and she was
walking away from the Springfield Road when she heard that trouble had broken
out.
I saw that there was a bit of a scuffle and it seemed to me that the RUC had
come in just as people were moving away, she said.
They came in heavy handed and there was a bit of a scuffle and melee that lasted
a few minutes then people just walked away.
I was walking away again when they jumped me and put me in the back of the jeep,
and took me to Grosvenor Road barracks.
Ms Ramsey claims she sustained a number of scratches and bruises while being
arrested and she asked for a doctor to be brought to the police station.
The doctor examined me and later I was charged with criminal damage and
obstruction, she said.
The west Belfast assembly member said one of the police men who arrested her had
indicated that he knew she was a Sinn Fein politician, but in their statements
all the arresting officers had insisted they only knew who she was after she had
been charged.
Ms Ramsey said she had gone to court expecting to contest the charges brought
against her but the case was dismissed at Belfast Magistrate's Court after the
police evidence had been heard.
Ms Ramsey's defence lawyer Patricia Coyle of solicitors Madden and Finucane
insisted yesterday that the case should never have been brought.
It was a malicious prosecution and I am astonished that the evidence even got to
court, she said.
Sue Ramsey said she was currently discussing with her lawyers the possibility of
taking action against the police for both malicious prosecution and assault.