Police Issue Warning Over Video Of Lurgan School Brawl

Police have issued a warning over the circulation of a video online which shows a brawl between two school children in Lurgan.

The video shows a first year school pupil from St Ronan's College being punched, kicked, and stamped on by another pupil.

Despite efforts made for a private investigation, local officers have spoke out after the video was shared online.

On PSNI Craigavon's Facebook page, a statement read: "In a bid to spare the victim any further distress, we didn't make this one public, instead working quietly but quickly with the school to identify, locate and interview two suspects.

"Sadly, a mixture of morbid curiosity and outright total lack of respect or thought for the dignity and wellbeing of the victim has lead to this video being shared online to the extent that it is well out in the public domain. That victim now, through no fault of his own, has to curtail his own online activity to avoid reliving the incident. Incredibly, this is not just down to children, but to adults sharing the video too.

"We need to get away from this media consumer hungry, lazy mentality of 'someone else will do something about it.' Sharing a video of a child being put through that with comments such as 'Someone needs to do something, that's shocking!' is adding to the problem, not fixing it."

St Ronan's College also confirmed that an Instagram account used to share videos of fights in the wider Lurgan and Craigavon community has been shared with the police.

Anyone with information, or who may have witnessed the incident, is urged to contact police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1189 of 25/05/19.

Alternatively, information can be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.

(CM/MH)