Baby beater is targeted by loyalist pipe bomber

Baby beater is targeted by loyalist pipe bomber

20 October 2002

The Sunday People

CONVICTED baby beater Geoffrey Briggs had just been released from jail when he was targeted by loyalist pipe bombers, the People can reveal.

And now the former Free Presbyterian African missionary, who was banged up for brutally beating his 14-month-old adopted son, is considering leaving his Portadown home for fear of further attacks.

Briggs, a burly six footer, was released only three weeks ago from Magilligan jail after serving six months of a year long sentence for grievous bodily harm.

There was widespread revulsion after it emerged Briggs punched his adopted Romanian son on the head in a rage because he refused to take his medicine.

The incident, which left the baby with a fractured skull, happened only weeks after the infant's twin died unexpectedly.

Sources claim 41-year-old Briggs, who worked as a missionary in West Africa, is now living in fear from maniac loyalists in mid-Ulster who have ordered the targeting of paedophiles, perverts and child beaters.

The UVF, which security sources say is re-emerging as a dominant force in Portadown, stepped up its targeting of suspects in the wake of the murders of Soham school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Already a number of people have been attacked by gangs.

Security sources said: "This pipe bomb attack is worrying and the concern is that it mightn't be the end of it - there's always the fear that he could be attacked in the street."

Briggs, 41, was at home with his wife Gwen in Corcrain Drive when a breeze block was thrown at his house, followed by a crude pipe bomb device.

The incident sparked a major security alert and up to a dozen families were evacuated from their homes for several hours.

Briggs and his wife Gwen were refusing to talk, but sources close to the couple said they were now considering moving out of the area.