DUP council election candidate told 'stay off Belfast's Ormeau Road or risk death'

Darren Leighton is currently vying to be a candidate for the Botanic area of Belfast City Council on May 18.

The warning came in the form of a phone call to a charity – a common tactic of paramilitaries for making anonymous threats.

PSNI officers then turned up at a local DUP office to pass on the warning.

The party said officers are treating it as a credible threat.

It is not clear if the threat relates to just the lower Ormeau district (which is traditionally nationalist / republican dominated) or the entire road, which is one of the main traffic arteries of the city.

Nor is it known why the threat is against such a relatively-unknown first-time candidate.

Whatever the case, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson strongly condemned the threat.

" I know there will be opposition from across the community to such thuggery," he said.

"Darren is a young man seeking to represent the community in which he lives and has already made a valuable contribution to.

"I know he will not be deterred by this threat and will continue making a positive impact in this campaign. There can be no 'no go areas' in Northern Ireland.

"He has the full support of everyone in the DUP at this time and I know those behind this threat don’t represent the vast majority of people of the Botanic area or anywhere else in Northern Ireland."

The PSNI refused to discuss individual cases.

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