Policing and Combating Terrorism in Northern Ireland by Neil Southern

Author:Neil Southern
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

It is important to consider the context of the attack and the psychological consequences for the officer’s wife and son. Terrorists, using an undercar booby-trap bomb, inflicted physical injuries consistent with those sustained by military personnel on the battlefield. In this respect, terrorists turned the home of the officer into a combat zone, exposing his family to danger as well as his wife and son to the immediate emotional aftermath of the blast—horrendous physical injury to a loved one. It is certainly unusual for a wife to be exposed to the rawness of her husband’s injuries in this manner. While car accidents can cause dreadful injuries which family members can witness, these, by definition, are not deliberately caused. Where major injuries are intentionally inflicted, as in military conflicts, family members will normally receive information from senior medical staff regarding the extent of their loved one’s injuries. Evacuation and hospitalisation allows for a degree of adjustment to the tragic news and information of this kind helps reduce shock and assists with mental preparation before attending the bedside of the victim. These preparatory stages, which aid individual and familial approaches to coping, were missing in the case of the attack on this officer as his wife and son were present at the scene.

Wounds caused by gunshot or bomb blasts in conventional conflicts involve the risk of infection (Petersen et al. 2007). This is also the case in asymmetrical conflicts where terrorists’ use of anti-personnel devices, like undercar booby traps or explosives connected to a pressure plate, threaten wounds with contamination. For example, an explosion involving a pressure plate can result in the rubber fragments of a soldier’s boot or soil beneath which the plate is concealed, becoming embedded deep in a wound. Similarly, an undercar booby trap can cause particles of the car’s seat as well as rusty metal fragments of the underside of the vehicle to become implanted in the wound area resulting in serious infection. Clothing fibres also threaten infection and require careful removal from the wound area. The officer discussed some of his other injuries: ‘I also had debris from the bomb and car in various locations of my body such as shrapnel in my eyes and a spring from the car seat implanted in my buttocks’ (response to questionnaire, officer 11, 24 June 2016) which had to be addressed once his life-threatening injuries had received attention.

The physical effects of the explosion dramatically altered the officer’s life. They brought his career in the police to an end. He could no longer play rugby and found it difficult to participate in pipe band contests in addition to other recreational activities he previously enjoyed. With the use of prosthetic limbs he was able to walk again but the scope for mobility has decreased with age: ‘Unfortunately, I am now wheelchair bound as I do not have the strength to use the prosthetic limbs.’ The result of this is increased dependence upon his wife who took on the role of caregiver following the attack.

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