It was an ordinary Friday evening in April 2016. Michael McGibbon, a 33-year-old taxi driver, prepared to leave his Belfast home for a meeting. He kissed his wife, Joanne, goodbye.
As she hugged him, she begged him not to go, telling him, ‘I can't let you do this’. But he went. He felt he had no choice.
Michael wasn’t going to just any meeting. He was going to a pre-arranged shooting, where men with covered faces would shoot him once in the ankle and once in the artery at the back of his knee.
“I remember thinking, ‘I need a hospital bag, I need to pack stuff for him’,” Joanne recalls. “I packed his pyjamas as I knew for definite he’d be in hospital for the night. I remember saying to him that I loved him, and hugging him, and saying, ‘I can’t let you do this’. But he said, ‘You have to let me do this’.”
The next time Joanne saw her husband, he was wounded in the street. She tried to save his life, but Michael died, murdered in what the police believe was a form of vigilante punishment. Appealing for information a year after the attack, the police described Michael as a "man with no criminal record, no apparent criminal connections or associations".
Joanne and Michael McGibbonJOANNE AND MICHAEL MCGIBBON / BBC THREE
Joanne and Michael McGibbon
These brutal assaults – known by some as ‘punishment attacks’, and often targeted at men under 30 - come in the form of beatings or 'kneecapping' shootings, where the victim is literally shot through the knee, ankle or sometimes elbow. They are the subject of a new BBC Three documentary presented by Stacey Dooley.
The attacks are carried out by paramilitary groups – self-appointed vigilantes who engage in illegal activities and act as though they have official military powers - such as the Republican groups AAD (Action Against Drugs), the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) and the Loyalist group UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force).
They use guns and wear combat gear, and, as Stacey hears in her documentary, they claim they want to protect their community. But their behaviour is a far cry from that of the police or the actual army. In fact, as well as the violence they carry out, police believe these groups are often involved in other serious crimes, including drug dealing and extortion.
The existence of both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland today is the legacy of a long conflict about whether or not Ireland should become one united country. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, while the Republic of Ireland is a separate country. Republicans identify as Irish and Loyalists identify as British.
Paramilitary ParadeBBC THREE
Paramilitary parade during The Troubles
Between 1968 and 1998, in the period known as The Troubles, thousands of people were killed and injured. Aggressive tactics, such as punishment attacks, were used by both sides in an attempt to intimidate and control their local communities.
After a long peace process, the Good Friday Agreement (or Belfast Agreement) was signed in 1998, and peace has largely continued since then.
But paramilitary dissidents still have a grip on parts of the neighbourhoods they operate in today.
Their threats often single out those the groups deem a threat to society - which often means young men who the paramilitaries believe are guilty of anti-social behaviour like death driving (aka joyriding) and other criminal activity, like drug dealing, theft and vandalism.
Paramilitary GrafittiBBC THREE
Paramilitary grafitti warnings
According to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) the number of so-called punishment shootings has reduced so far in 2018. But last year, incidents were at their highest since 2010, with 101 reported casualties. The figures also show that Republican dissidents are more likely to use guns, while Loyalists tend to mete out beatings.
In the documentary, Stacey focuses on Republican areas in Belfast and talks to people on all sides of this issue. She meets the victims who carry the physical and mental scars of what happened to them, those working to combat the violence, and, finally, the masked, gun-toting men who carry out the attacks.
So called ‘punishments attacks’ are often (but not always) arranged by appointment – if you have been targeted you could get a call, given a place and time and told to turn up for your shooting or beating. Earlier this year, George Hamilton, the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) told the Guardian that some victims’ loved ones were even drugging them and getting them drunk before they were beaten or shot, to offset the pain.
Paramilitary groups attempt to justify their behaviour by saying that attacks will maintain order in the community and keep those who commit a crime off the street because, put simply, they won’t physically be able to walk. However, some of the victims have already been charged by police with a crime and punished by the criminal justice system.
On the Divis Estate in West Belfast, it can seem that there is a quiet acceptance of punishment attacks as restorative justice. In 2017, there were reports of a Facebook page where residents could list names of people they believed had committing a crime, and then respond to news of their punishment once it has happened.
Death Driving ClipMIICKC - YOUTUBE
"Death driving" leaves residents scared to leave their homes
Sometimes it's not only those thought to be involved in theft, drugs, or antisocial behaviour who are targeted.
In the documentary, Stacey meets Rab, who was 28 when he was hit in the head with a hammer, as well as shot in the legs and ankles by masked men who forced their way into his house. He thinks it was a revenge attack for a fight he’d had with a man a few weeks before.
Rab - Victim of shootingBBC THREE
Rab at home after he was attacked
The men shot him in the kitchen while his partner Natasha and two of her children, aged four and six, were held by a masked man in the living room next door. Natasha’s 10-year-old child witnessed the attack.
“We ordered take-out food,” he explains. “The food came, and as I was cutting it up I turned round and a masked man was standing in the kitchen.” He then heard someone say “cripple the bastard”.
Rab's injuries were so severe he feared at one point that he might not walk again. However, his wounds healed, and now he is able to stand, but he is clearly suffering psychologically from his ordeal. “No ten-year-old should see that,” Rab reflects.
Rab blames himself for the emotional distress the attack has caused to his family. “You’re just constantly thinking you’ve ruined their lives,” he says.
The PSNI has vowed to tackle the violence. They've set up a department called the Paramilitary Crime Task Force to try to tackle crime carried out by paramilitary groups. Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton from the PSNI’s task force explains in the documentary that all of this is more than a warped form of justice. “They are organised crime groups now. They are exploiting people within their community.” He says they tax drug dealers and anyone starting a new business.
Some people are trying to turn the tide on punishment attacks. Community Restorative Justice, for example, works to get threats lifted. Deputy Director Jim McCarthy says that across Belfast, there are 250-300 threats a year, a significantly higher number than has been recorded by the PSNI.
Meanwhile, on the Divis estate, Stephen Hughes runs a youth centre where a tongue-in-cheek ‘No Adults’ sign hangs on the door. He tells Stacey that paramilitaries have threatened and even shot some of the teenagers he works with.
Stephen HughesBBC THREE
Youth centre worker, Stephen Hughes
“We’ve had four [incidents] in 14 months,” he explains. "All alive, but all damaged. My argument is how does it change things? How does it stop crime, how does it prevent drugs?
"It doesn’t. They’re children. And often they’re the most vulnerable children who have suffered as they’ve grown up. We have to say this is not acceptable, this is our line in the sand.”
Stephen wants to show the young people that a better future is possible - one where they don’t have to fear a knock on the door. He explains that some members of the paramilitary groups "don’t want to be involved in punishing children," but feel like they have to keep doing so because "the community demand it" owing to a lack of "faith in the justice system".
Paramilitary GroupBBC THREE
Masked members of a Republican paramilitary group
The paramilitary groups claim that they believe they are providing a service. During the filming of the documentary, a Republican paramilitary group agrees to meet Stacey in order to attempt to explain why they carry out these attacks. They describe what they do as 'social action'.
“We could be living next door to your grandmother,” one member says, “and that’s why people fear us so much because we just come out of the shadows, do our deed and go home.”
When Stacey presses the group and asks whether they feel any guilt at all, they reply, “We want to help people.” A spokesman for the group tells her, “And if you have to shoot someone to help people, then we’ll do it.”