Mr Dallat said: “These home invaders showed no mercy as they carried out their brutal assault. Having not satisfied their bloodlust by grievously injuring the victim, they pursued him to inflict further damage as he tried to flee.
“This is the twelfth such attack in the Coleraine/Ballymoney area clearly carried out by remnants of the UDA who are in disarray and are desperately trying to establish their authority on this community through fear.
“Such attacks can only be treated as attempted murder and it is unacceptable that these horrific crimes have become the norm in our society.
“I would urge anyone with any information relating to this attack to contact the PSNI by phoning 101. This incident bears all the hallmarks of a so-called ‘punishment shooting’ and the lack of prosecutions for these attacks are a direct result of the public’s unwillingness to pass on information. It is up to all of us as a society to send a clear message that we will not tolerate this pseudo-vigilantism and we can only do this by ensuring the PSNI have all the information possible to prosecute these criminals.”
Source : SDLP