Police say attack on Bangor centre was racist and sectarian
By Julie Waters
VANDALS have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage during a ‘vile and disgusting’ graffiti attack at the Bangor Aurora Leisure centre.
Investigating police officers are now treating Tuesday night’s racist and sectarian graffiti spree at the £38m Castle Park Avenue centre complex as a hate crime.
Vandals struck at around 8.15pm and a large amount of graffiti was sprayed across the front and side of the centre and on two vehicles in the car park.
Chris Kelly, leisure contract manager at the Bangor centre, said the damage had a negative impact not only on centre users and staff but on the wider city.
Calling on those responsible to stop, Mr Kelly said: “I am appealing for it to stop, for people to realise this is centre for the people of Bangor. This damage has an impact on the staff, on the users of the facilities.”
He explained that although the Bangor centre had suffered graffiti attacks in recent months, this latest attack had come after a period without incident.
“We had really bad graffiti on Tuesday night. It was particularly bad and is something we have suffered over a period of time. It was not a nice sight to come into in the morning and we have informed the police,” said Mr Kelly.
“The graffiti was along the front of the building, all over the glass doors at the entrance, at the side of the building and two cars in the car park were also graffitied.”
He highlighted the cost of the clean up exercise saying: “The clean up figure will be a few thousand pounds as well as the time to get it cleaned and repainted. It doesn’t do anybody in Bangor any favours.”
North Down MP Alex Easton condemned the attack as ‘vile and disgusting’ and said ‘this type of behaviour had no place in our society’.
“I totally condemn this,” said Mr Easton. “It is vile and disgusting and not only does it damage council property, it is the ratepayers that have to pay to repair this.
“There is no place for this type of behaviour in our society and I would appeal to anyone with information to come forward to the police.”
A police spokesperson confirmed that the PSNI is investigating a report of criminal damage at a leisure centre in the Castle Park Avenue area of Bangor.
She said: “It was reported that graffiti was daubed on a building at around 8.15pm last night, Tuesday, August 28. Two cars were also damaged.
“This is being treated as a racial and sectarian motivated hate crime.
Police would ask anyone with any information on this incident to contact Police on 101 and quote reference 1741 of 27/08/24. Members of the public can also report online at: https://www.psni.police.uk/report.”
