War memorial damage no longer being treated as hate crime, say police

Police have said they are no longer treating substantial damage to Coagh war memorial as a deliberate act.

By The Newsroom

Published 16th Jan 2019, 12:37 BST

Updated 7th Feb 2019, 17:18 BST

In a statement this morning, the PSNI said they were treating the smashing of concrete slabs at the war memorial as a hate crime.

However in a further statement released this afternoon, police asked for their earlier appeal to be disregarded.

“Information has now been provided to police regarding the damage and it is now no longer believed to have been a deliberate act,” a spokesman said. “Apologies for any inconvenience.”

The first appeal said the damage was reported at around 12:55am this morning and that “concrete slabs of the war memorial had been smashed”.

PSNI