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![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1f4af190-cc5f-11f0-912f-875157322ac1.jpg.webp.webp\")
Reuters<\/p>\nReuters<\/p>\n
The teenagers will now be released from the juvenile detention centre where they have been held for more than five months<\/p>\n
Attempted rape charges against two Romanian teenagers, that sparked widespread racially-motivated riots across Northern Ireland, have been withdrawn.<\/p>\n
The boys, aged 14 and 15, were accused of attempting to rape a schoolgirl in Ballymena, County Antrim on 7 June.<\/p>\n
In a previous court hearing there were claims that the girl was dragged down an alleyway into a garage, but escaped when her would-be attackers were disturbed and ran off.<\/p>\n
However, the Public Prosecution Service was granted permission to end criminal proceedings against the pair due to “significant evidential developments”, at Belfast Youth Court on Friday.<\/p>\n
![\"Pacemaker](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/585c58f0-cc5c-11f0-a709-e1cdbb15a6d6.jpg.webp.webp\")
Pacemaker<\/p>\n
The defendant’s barristers raised no objection to the withdrawal application<\/p>\n
The teenagers will now be released from the juvenile detention centre where they have been held for more than five months.<\/p>\n
Another youth, who is suspected to be involved in the alleged attack, is believed to have fled to Romania the next day. <\/p>\n
None of the accused can be identified because of their ages.<\/p>\n
Following the alleged assault widespread racially-motivated took place in the town before spreading to other parts of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said: “We have recently been made aware of significant evidential developments in this case. <\/p>\n
“In light of this new evidence, it has been determined that the test for prosecution is no longer met on evidential grounds, and therefore the case should not proceed.<\/p>\n
“The prosecution team and the police investigation team met with the complainant and her family this morning to explain the reasons for the decision.”<\/p>\n
‘Very sensitive case’<\/p>\n
The defendants’ barristers raised no objection to the withdrawal application.<\/p>\n
“The sooner this can be relayed to Woodlands [Juvenile Justice Centre] the sooner these two youths can be released,” counsel said.<\/p>\n
District Judge George Conner said he was aware “this is a very sensitive case”, adding that “the less I say about it the better”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reuters The teenagers will now be released from the juvenile detention centre where they have been held for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-287966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}