District Commander for Fermanagh and Omagh Superintendent Alywin Barton is taking the two stabbing incidents which occurred in Fermanagh this week "very seriously", stating that the PSNI will oppose bail in both instances as they "have shown themselves capable of inflicting serious harm".

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter on Tuesday (January 12) following the two incidents, when asked if there is a problem with knife crime in the Fermanagh area, Superintendent Barton said that although stabbing incidents are not prolific here, he's not saying that there's not a problem.

He explained: "Any time there is a stabbing incident, the potential is there for it to be fatal so therefore it is of huge concern when a stabbing incident occurs.

"Fortunately these are few and far between in the Fermanagh area, we have had two in one week which is thankfully incredibly unusual. But that doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the matter and thankfully we are able to invest significant efforts in making sure that we make [accountable] those who are involved in those incidents."

When asked if there is a link between the two stabbing incidents, Superintendent Barton commented "no, they are two separate incidents".

He added: "Although, there is a common denominator and it is the pressure they put on the National Health Service (NHS).

"Ultimately, I can’t say these attacks wouldn’t have happened had people been complying with public health regulations but certainly, some of the people present would not have been where they were had they been complying with the health regulations."

It is understood that videos and photos of the recent stabbing incidents were shared on social media platforms. When asked if the PSNI monitor these, Superintendent Barton said: "I’m aware certainly that the assaults appeared on various platforms.

"We are not Big Brother monitoring all social media platforms, first of all, but we have become aware of those incidents that were shared and indeed, such is the circumstance of local officers serving in their local community, those are eventually shared with serving officers which enables us to have access to them."

Responding to this newspaper when asked if he thinks the sharing of these types of videos of assaults and stabbings glorify the crimes, Superintendent Barton said: "Personally I don’t think it does glorify the crimes. What I would worry about is the graphic nature of some of them.

"First of all my ask would be don’t do these people any service by increasing their number of views by looking at it. There’s nothing nice about looking at someone lying on a floor surrounded by blood.

"What would concern me more is these images being published in this manner actually has an effect on the levels of fear of crime that some people would suffer," he said, noting that people could be scared into the belief that this type of crime is more prevalent than it actually is.

He assured that the recent attacks were "in essence, two one-off incidents".

"They are being very positively dealt with where the victim is and has recovered okay and will recover okay and the suspects have been arrested and are either charged through court or in the process of being charged. That is the right process for those people and we will be opposing bail in both instances because these people have shown themselves capable of inflicting serious harm.

"The applications to have them released back into society will be opposed from our perspective because I take very seriously our responsibility to try and protect the community from those individuals who are prepared to inflict serious harm," Superintendent Barton told this newspaper.