Mother vows to stay after racist attack damages north Belfast home
Sia Fay, a mother of two originally from Nigeria, says she will not be driven from her house after her living-room window was smashed and racist graffiti left on Thursday night
A woman who says her north Belfast home was targeted in a racist attack on Thursday has told reporters she will not be forced to leave the area.
Sia Fay, a mother of two and a beauty therapist originally from Nigeria, said the living-room window of the house she moved into in March was smashed while she and her children, aged 12 and 14, were in the property. Graffiti reading "locals only" was left on internal walls, and Ms Fay said a sign had been placed on her front door and on her car marking the address as a target.
"Racists won't force me from my home," Ms Fay said. She added the incident left her daughter shaken and that she has been teaching her children to be resilient after an earlier attack in July when a back window was smashed.
Police said they are investigating a possible link between Thursday night's incident in Manor Street and two other recent reports of damage to properties in north Belfast, one also in Manor Street and another in Summerhill Court. BBC News NI understands the two other properties were vacant.
Separately, officers are treating an attack on a house in Donaghadee as a racially motivated hate crime. In that incident a front door was damaged, police said. No arrests have been publicly confirmed in connection with either the north Belfast incidents or the Donaghadee case.
Ms Fay moved into the manor street property in March and told BBC News NI she had already experienced an earlier attack in July. She said the most recent incident has had a significant emotional effect on her family but that they would remain in the home.
Local community representatives and political figures have previously condemned racially motivated attacks in Northern Ireland, saying they cause distress and undermine community cohesion. Authorities have urged anyone with information about the incidents to contact police as inquiries continue.
The investigations are ongoing. Police asked anyone who witnessed suspicious activity in the areas of Manor Street, Summerhill Court or Donaghadee around the times of the reported attacks to come forward, and stressed the importance of community assistance in identifying those responsible for crimes alleged to be motivated by race.