“I think this was a paramilitary-type operation carried out with paramilitary precision.”

The ongoing attacks in Ballymurphy, previously noted on Slugger, today saw a hijacked JCB digger being driven by masked men into an uninhabited house owned by Edith Notorantonio, a family whose properties have been repeatedly attacked. The attacks escalated following the murder of Gerard Devlin at the start of last year, a murder in which two members of the Notorantonio family were charged in Feb 2006, and has rumbled on in the background ever since. The house has now been declared unsafe and will be demolished, although the family have stated that they are determined to rebuild it. The Belfast Telegraph report is worth noting,

Gerard Devlin’s aunt Bernadette O’Rawe said: “The Devlin family had absolutely nothing to do with this. This has been carried out by someone who has a personal grudge against the Notorantonio’s.

“I think this was a paramilitary-type operation carried out with paramilitary precision. There is no way the children could have done this. It is very frightening that our family is being implicated in this.”

Pete Baker