A 16 year old has been charged and is due in court today in connection with the rape of an English schoolgirl in west Belfast a couple of weeks back.

I'm honestly (very pleasantly) surprised by this as I was beginning to lose faith in the PSNI altogether. How can you not with stories like this? The reason I didn't post anything yesterday when he was arrested was because I didn't think he'd be charged. 5 people have now been arrested and released over the Lisa Dorrian murder remember.

Follow up:

He's facing a total of 12 charges including assault, armed robbery, false imprisonment and grievous bodily harm. He denies the charges and is due to reappear before the court in Lisburn via videolink on 30th August.

The arrest came after another youth, believed to be the accomplice, was arrested and charged at the weekend with aiding and abetting the rape.

I think in a case as serious as this the boy needs to be tried as an adult and, if found guilty, given a serious sentence, no pissing about.