Assembly member says he will not be intimidated by graffiti

An assembly member has condemned graffiti painted on a wall in his west Belfast constituency as "disgraceful".

Gerry Carroll said the graffiti, which featured his name alongside a crosshair symbol, was designed to intimidate him but "is not going to work".

The People Before Profit MLA said that he understood the graffiti to have been the work of a "fringe fascist group".

A spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said it had "been made aware of threatening graffiti daubed on a wall in the west Belfast area".

The statement added that enquires were "ongoing to establish the circumstances" and and appealed for anyone with information to contact police.

Speaking to the BBC's Nolan Show, Carroll said: "It's not going to deter me from the campaigning that I do around anti-racist anti-fascist activity or anything else that I do in my constituency."

He said that since the graffiti was discovered on Sunday morning, he had received numerous messages of support.

"These people have no answers or no alternative for working class communities, they are trying to prey on fear and division."

He added that the group he believes to be behind the graffiti have "no support in west Belfast or anywhere else really".