LOYALIST bandsmen accused of urinating in residents' gardens are not being pursued by police - despite officers identifying the band involved.
Police received several complaints from residents last summer after hundreds of loyalists marched through the mixed Ormeau Road area of south Belfast to commemorate UDA members.
One woman said she was verbally abused in front of her five-year-old son when she confronted bandsmen urinating outside her home.
"I looked outside and saw a man in uniform unzipping his fly in front of my gate. There were five of them standing around the corner of my house pissing," she said.
The 39-year-old said the bandsmen told her to "f*** off" when she approached them at the front of her Delhi Street property.
"It was intimidating and unpleasant and my front path was covered in urine," she said.
"My son was definitely alarmed. He came out and witnessed the whole thing."
Police reports obtained by The Irish News reveal officers at the march identified a band which had some members accused of urinating in public.
However, the PSNI has taken no action following the parade in July, which glorified five UDA members including Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder.
Police did not inform the Parades Commission of the band's identity and did not even contact the band about the matter.
The PSNI received two reports relating to members of a band dressed all in black accused of urinating in gardens during the July 31 march.
Chief inspector Robert Murdie said: "An officer on the ground noted details of a band dressed in black.
"Given that an officer had not witnessed the incident and there was no recorded evidence which could be used to establish the identity of the two individuals, no additional course of action could be progressed.
"If police had witnessed each incident the most appropriate form of action would have been the issue of a penalty notice for disorder of £45."
The Parades Commission, meanwhile, said it received "many written and verbal complaints" about the march.
"The commission has reviewed and recorded these complaints and has, within its statutory powers, the ability to reflect past parading conduct in future decisions," a spokesman said.
One of the residents who complained but who did not wish to be named, said she felt disappointed that no police action was being taken.
"The fact that I was home alone with my son did make me feel vulnerable," she said.
"It is disappointing that there aren't going to be any repercussions. It's anti-social behaviour that really should not be tolerated."
SDLP South Belfast MLA Fearghal McKinney said he would be raising the issue with police in the area.
"It defies belief that the police have evidence of a crime, which is causing significant anger among residents, and have identified individuals to pursue but have chosen to take no action," he said.
"Parades like this are a regular occurrence, causing significant disruption and aggravation to residents. As if that wasn't bad enough, they now have to put up with people urinating in their gardens and on their property with impunity."
Loyalist bandsmen urinating in public during the parading season has caused outrage in the past.
Last year a Limavady band master apologised to a Catholic priest after two bandsmen urinated at the gates to his home during a parade.
In 2012 a bandsman was also photographed urinating out-side St Matthew's Church on Newtownards Road in Belfast during an Ulster Covenant centenary parade.
Police eventually dropped the case when they were unable to identify the offender.
* COMPLAINTS: Loyalist bandsmen parade in south Belfast last July during a march which commemorated the deaths of notorious paramilitaries Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder, who were killed by the IRA in 1994. Left, a bandsman urinates outside St Matthew's Catholic Church on Belfast's Newtownards Road in 2012