It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland's Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast.

Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands.

By the time the Police Service of Northern Ireland was made aware of the incident, the victim - and his two attackers - had gone.

Tarring and feathering has been used as a punishment for almost 1,000 years. During the third crusade to the Holy Land, King Richard ruled that any Royal Navy sailors caught stealing should be tarred and feathered.