Twenty years after a sectarian attack in Londonderry left Paul McCauley severely disabled and nine years after his subsequent death, his father stated that a "culture of silence still exists" regarding the incident.
McCauley was 29 years old when he was assaulted at a barbecue on Chapel Road in the Waterside area in the early hours of July 16, 2006. The attack resulted in injuries that left him with a disability. He died in a care facility in June 2015.
In 2018, two men were convicted in connection with McCauley's death. John McClements, also known as Daryl Proctor, was sentenced to a minimum of three years for murder, while Matthew Brian Gillon received a 10-year sentence for manslaughter, with five years to be served in prison. Police at the time of the investigation believed a group of up to 15 individuals may have been involved in the assault.
Following McCauley's death in 2015, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) reclassified the case as a murder inquiry. Detectives interviewed and arrested several individuals as part of this investigation, but no further prosecutions have been initiated to date.
During the years after the attack, concerns over the lack of information being provided to the police were raised in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The McCauley family publicly urged for a cessation of the "wall of silence" that they believed persisted within unionist communities in the city.