The father of a young Catholic police officer is being forced out of his home in the Bogside area of Derry because of the growing threat posed by the Real IRA.

Liam Bradley (65), a former civil rights activist who tried to save the life of a teenager shot by British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday, is moving to the unionist Waterside area because he believes his life is in imminent danger, a family friend said.

Philip Kelly told the Sunday Tribune: "I've never met anybody more scared. It's disgraceful that a man of Liam Bradley's calibre is being driven from his home by thugs who don't respect democracy and want to drag Ireland back into the past.

"Liam has serious health problems. The stress he is under is horrendous. He has to stay indoors after dark. The police have said it isn't safe to leave the house at night. He might as well be in jail. This is all because his son joined the police."

Bradley, a former deputy mayor of Derry, is a Fianna Fáil member. Two years ago, the Real IRA blasted the front door of his Lone Moor Road home with a shotgun, but the family refused to leave the area. However, the dissident threat has since grown.

Two months ago, a Real IRA bomb exploded outside the home of a policeman's parents in the Shantallow area of Derry. Dissidents left another bomb outside the home of the same officer's sister.

Bradley's son, a law graduate, doesn't live at home but the Real IRA has targeted police officers' families in response to police harassment of the families of republicans.

Kelly said that Bradley had lived in the Bogside all his life and moving to the Waterside would break his heart: "He is a lifelong nationalist. He doesn't want to live in a loyalist area but it's his only choice now."

On Bloody Sunday, Bradley helped carry to safety the body of Jackie Duddy (17), shot by British paratroopers. Duddy died from his injuries minutes later.

Kelly said Sinn Féin should urgently do more to support and protect the Bradleys and the families of other Catholics who have joined the PSNI. "There must be public statements, every day if need be, from Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, strongly denouncing these dissidents," he said. "Sinn Féin should be organising rallies in support of Liam Bradley. Sinn Féin leaders supported the PSNI and encouraged young men and women to join up. Now these recruits and their families are under attack, they need practical support from Sinn Féin."

Kelly stressed he was speaking as a Sinn Féin supporter. His son Conor stood for Sinn Féin in Dublin in the last council elections, and his niece, Kathy Staunton, is a former Sinn Féin Assembly member for north Belfast.

"We need more people like young Bradley joining the PSNI to ensure that never again is there an Orange police force for an Orange state," Kelly said.