A 15-YEAR-OLD boy beaten in a sectarian attack in Northern Ireland died in hospital last night after his life-support machine was turned off.

Michael McIlveen, a Roman Catholic, was attacked in a car park in Ballymena, Co Antrim, as he walked home on Sunday evening. At least a dozen youths beat him with baseball bats before stamping on his head.

Police said last night that five people were being questioned about the attack in Ballymena, which is overwhelmingly Protestant and the main town in the Rev Ian Paisley’s constituency. The boy was walking home with friends between midnight and 1am when they were targeted. The group scattered but Michael was cornered. The full extent of his injuries was discovered only after he managed to get home.

He was taken from his house in the Dunvale estate to Antrim Area Hospital, where his family maintained a bedside vigil until his life-support machine was switched off at about 8pm last night.

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said he was was appalled by the killing, and urged the public to give the police their full assistance. He said: “This was a sickening sectarian attack that has taken the life of a teenager with his whole life in front of him. Those who are responsible for this murderous attack must be brought to justice, and anyone with information must bring it to the police.”

Mr Hain added: “Everyone will condemn this murder, which drags Northern Ireland back to the dark days of the past.”

Every year, as the days lengthen and the loyalist marching season gets under way, the number of sectarian attacks increases. Every year appeals are made by politicians, community leaders and clergy for calm.

Declan O’Loan, of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, said that tensions had been high recently. “There’s no point shirking the unpleasant fact that this was a sectarian act of the most serious nature,” he said. James Currie, an Ulster Unionist councillor in the town, called for a zero-tolerance approach, saying: “I am confident that those responsible for this attack will be brought to justice.”

Ballymena’s police commander said that the young victim had been chased after a row at a cinema. As detectives studied CCTV footage, Superintendent Terry Shevlin urged community leaders to help to ease the tensions between Protestant and Catholic factions caught up in a worsening dispute. He said: “I’m making a clear appeal to civic leaders, community leaders and others with influence in the Ballymena area to not only condemn this, which every right-thinking person would do, but to exercise whatever influence they can to prevent any retaliatory attacks.”

Police fears of further violence were heightened when a man was attacked in the Dunclug area of the town on Sunday evening. Although his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, detectives suspect that he was targeted as part of the same dispute.

Ian Paisley Jr, of the Democratic Unionists, condemned the attack and defended his party’s stance on sectarianism. He said: “We have advocated that government, when they catch people and convict them in the courts for crimes, that these people, if they’re proved to be involved in something to do with sectarianism or racism, should serve a stiffer penalty.”

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