Punishes ‘Anti-Social Behavior’ : IRA Targets Young Belfast Car Thieves

The teen-age car thief from a Belfast slum was taken out in a taxi by hooded IRA gunmen who shot him in the knees, ankles and elbows.

His crime? Being the ringleader of a gang of youths who stole scores of cars to go “joy riding” around the burned-out and graffiti-strewn ghettos of West Belfast.

The ravaged ghettos are a rich recruiting ground for the outlawed Irish Republican Army where up to eight out of 10 teen-agers may never find a job, and aimless desperation abounds.

The crumbling slums have become virtually off-limits for the police, who have to be accompanied by up to 20 British soldiers on patrol, and the IRA metes out its own summary justice for what it calls “anti-social behavior.”

Many of the stolen cars end up as charred wrecks and their rusting skeletons are a familiar sight outside the Divis Flats, one of the worst of Belfast’s rat-infested slums.

Shot 10 Times

The IRA shot 17-year-old car thief Charley Valliday 10 times in the knees, ankles and elbows on New Year’s Eve.

Surgeons at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital, which has treated more than 1,000 punishment shooting victims in the last 20 years, battled successfully to save his legs after an artery was severed. He will limp for the rest of his life.

“The terrorists come up with highfalutin phrases about punishing people for anti-social behavior,” a police spokesman said. “It is one of the most disgusting cases of hypocrisy for the IRA to set itself up as judge and jury when it steals cars itself to go and murder people.

“Thefts of cars are unpopular with local people in the area. If it was glue-sniffing or vandalism, then the IRA would jump on the bandwagon there as well,” he said.

The police agree that joy riders are a major headache in Northern Ireland, where IRA guerrillas are battling to oust Britain, and concede that catching them can be a highly dangerous exercise in fervently republican areas.

4,818 Vehicles Stolen

Giving the latest Belfast car theft statistics, he said 4,818 vehicles were stolen last year up to the end of November. That is down 600 on the same period in 1987. The detection rate is almost 50%

“The policeman who spots a stolen car cannot know if it is a young car thief or a terrorist out to create mayhem,” he said.

“There is some bravado too. We have had cases of car thieves crashing through police and army barriers in ‘chicken dare’ runs,” he added.

Police are also reluctant to take to the tight-knit little back streets of Belfast in their armored Land Rovers to catch joy riders in high-speed chases.

“The police do not like the option of a car chase, except where it is absolutely necessary. If you are after a young madman in a stolen car, he could easily kill other road users,” the police spokesman said.

Sentences Suspended

Many offenders who end up in court receive suspended sentences, with their driving licenses taken away for five years. One teen-ager admitted to 70 car thefts.

The police spokesman said: “A large number of the cars get burned afterwards, even if it is just the radio that has been stolen. Then there are the scavengers who pick up a car that has already been stolen and damage it even further.”

But what clearly enraged him most of all were the IRA gunmen who “kneecapped” young hoodlum joy riders but did not hesitate to hijack cars for their own attacks on British security forces.

Some of these were packed with explosives and obliterated in car bomb explosions. Others were burned out to destroy any evidence after being used as guerrilla getaway cars in mortar, rifle and machine gun attacks.