Man accused of suspected racial attack on house 'found balaclava on street'
A man arrested with a balaclava after a masked crowd carried out a suspected racial attack on homes in north Belfast claimed he found it on the street, the High Court heard today.
Curtis Bell, 28, was detained when police pursued those believed to have targeted houses in Rathlin Street.
Men wearing balaclavas used hammers to smash windows and doors on two neighbouring properties on August 6.
Police claimed an eight-strong group carried out the attack because they thought the occupants were not from Northern Ireland.
Bell, from Fingal Street in Belfast, is accused of criminal damage to one of the houses.
His lawyers previously challenged the decision to charge him, arguing that detectives had no complaint and did not know the occupants of the address.
But prosecution counsel Fiona O’Kane disclosed today that a Czech family have lived there for a number of years.
No-one was present at the time of the attack as they were visiting relatives, the court was told.
A PSNI helicopter monitored the attacks and directed officers on the ground as they chased suspects from the scene.
Mrs O’Kane claimed Bell was one of those who had been in Rathlin Street based on what he had been wearing.
“When he was arrested he was still wearing the same distinctive clothing and in his pocket police retrieved a balaclava,” the prosecutor said.
During police interviews Bell denied involvement in any disorder or criminal damage to the house.
“He said that the balaclava was just something that he found and picked up and put in his pocket,” counsel added.
Opposing his application for bail, she cited the “ongoing nature of the racial aggression towards minority communities”.
Mrs O’Kane confirmed police have linked the incident to the wider unrest across the city.
Defence barrister Declan Quinn argued that Bell has never been in any racist activity in the past and only faces a single charge.
“There is no suggestion that this man has paramilitary leanings, he’s very much a fish out of water in custody for the first time,” Mr Quinn submitted.
Adjourning the case, however, Mr Justice McFarland requested an alternative proposed address for Bell to live at, further away from the scene of the attack.