More than 550 young people aged 18 and under were the victims of paramilitary-style attacks since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, including a nine-year-old.
Figures released by the PSNI reveal 564 shootings and beatings of children from April 10 1998, to early last year.
The nine-year-old suffered a broken rib cage following the attack, carried out by loyalists in 2009, according to a 2014 report by Professor Liam Kennedy of Queen’s University Belfast.
Among the other pre-teens attacked were two 12-year-olds and a child aged 10 who was shot with a gun in the left leg, information released following a Freedom of Information request by Belfast Live reveals.
Of the victims aged 18 and under, 219 or 38.8% were shot with a firearm, with injuries resembling a “punishment shooting”, including a gunshot wound to the calf, thigh or ankle. Some of the victims were shot in both legs.
The other weapons used in the attacks include hammers, baseball bats, metal poles, scaffolding poles and nail studded bats.
One 13-year-old child suffered a broken arm, four broken fingers, bruising across their body and cuts to their legs “caused by force of blows”, Belfast Live reported.
A 75-year-old was the oldest victim, suffering a broken ankle, bruises to the head, a broken wrist and leg following an assault described as a “case of mistaken identity”. A 74-year-old also suffered serious head and back injuries after a hammer attack.
According to the latest PSNI security statistics, there were were 30 casualties of paramilitary style assaults in the 12 months to the end of January, compared to 26 over the precious year. All were aged 18 years or older.
Seventeen people were shot over the same period, a rise from nine the previous year. Again, all were aged 18 and over.
The last reported attack on a young person aged under 18 was in 2018.
