Girl, 13, charged with rioting over Ballymena disorder
A 13-year-old girl has been charged with rioting over disorder that broke out in Northern Ireland last week.
Ballymena and other nearby areas saw five consecutive nights of violence after an alleged sexual assault of a girl in the County Antrim town.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said five more people have been arrested in connection with the disorder - bringing the total number to 29.
The latest arrests include the 13-year-old girl who has been charged with rioting over the third night of disorder in Ballymena last Wednesday.
A 33-year-old woman has also been charged with child cruelty relating to the disorder.
A 25-year-old man has been detained in connection with an arson attack on Larne Leisure Centre, which was significantly damaged.
He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
A 40-year-old man has been charged with rioting on 9 June - the first night of disorder.
Meanwhile, a 32-year-old man has been charged with sending menacing messages through a public electronic communications network, and with encouraging or assisting offences, believing one or more will be committed.
He was further charged with possession of a Class B controlled drug.
The violent disorder began in Ballymena last Monday following a peaceful protest supporting the family of a girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted in the area.
1:25
Two 14-year-old boys, who spoke to a court through a Romanian interpreter, have been charged with attempted rape.
The disturbances continued for several nights and spread to other areas of Northern Ireland including Portadown, Larne, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Londonderry and Coleraine.
Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones said "thankfully, similar to Saturday, the situation was much calmer" in Northern Ireland on Sunday night.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
39 minutes ago
- Metro
'Teen boy shoots dead three at carnival including infant and injures two others'
A teenage boy allegedly shot five people at a carnival and killed three of them including an eight-month-old infant. The teen is accused of opening fire as two groups got into a fight at the WestFest carnival at Centennial Park in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. Police officers working at the carnival saw the two groups get into a verbal altercation on Sunday night. 'As they approached to break up the altercation, a 16-year-old male from one of the groups pulled out a gun and fired,' wrote the West Valley City Police Department on X (formerly Twitter). An officer fired and did not hit the suspect, who was taken into custody. More Trending The teen allegedly killed Hassan Lugundi, 18, who was believed to be his target; Fnu Reena, 41; and the infant whose identity was not immediately released. West Valley City Mayor Karen Lang said that the city council was 'heartbroken'. 'What should have been a joyful night of community celebration ended in unimaginable tragedy,' Lang wrote in statement shared by the police department on Monday. 'We mourn the lives lost and stand in deep sorrow with the families whose worlds have been changed forever.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Starmer stoops to pick up UK-US trade agreement papers dropped by Trump MORE: Full list of 29 home goods chain store locations closing this fall amid bankruptcy MORE: Trump launches his own mobile network with a $499 gold phone
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
JK Rowling in bitter spat with Boy George as singer calls her ‘rich bored bully' over trans rights
JK Rowling has blasted Boy George for calling her a 'rich bored bully' – pointing out he once served time for whipping a male escort with a chain. The Harry Potter author posted a furious response on X after the Culture Club singer waded into a spat with another user who claimed Ms Rowling was 'the person maybe most responsible for the push to take away trans rights'. 2 When Ms Rowling asked the X user 'which rights have been taken away from trans people?', Boy George responded: 'The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!' Ms Rowling posted a lengthy rebuttal in which she accused the Karma Chameleon singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, of sneering at 'unenlightened plebs' who reject the notion that trans women are women. She added: 'I've never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain.' Boy George was jailed in 2009 for handcuffing an escort to his bed and inflicting 'wholly gratuitous violence' at a property in Shoreditch, east London, in April 2007. The court was told that the cocaine-fuelled attack on Audun Carlsen, a Norwegian man, had been 'premeditated and callous' and had left the victim 'traumatised'. Boy George had been found guilty at an earlier trial of false imprisonment and beating Carlsen with a chain with the help of another man, whom he had never identified. Ms Rowling rejected Boy George's claim that she was entitled. She pointed out that she had been poor and could empathise with women who relied on state-funded services, such as single-sex rape crisis, domestic abuse and homeless shelters. She said: 'You yourself have been convicted of violent assault. The overwhelming number of people who commit crimes of violence are male, just like you.' Ms Rowling has become one of the most outspoken campaigners for women-only spaces, becoming a target for criticism by transgender rights activists. The row broke out months after Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality law.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: The eight perverted grooming gangs convicted of preying on girls
Since the Daily Mail exposed the scandal of children being groomed for sex by gangs of South Asian men 15 years ago, almost 400 abusers have been brought to justice. In Rochdale alone, eight rings of mainly Pakistani-heritage paedophiles have been convicted of preying on largely white girls in the early 2000s – and a further 20 men are awaiting trial. Recent cases which underline the scale of the scourge in a string of Britain's towns and cities include: THE MARKET STALL GANG Just last Friday, seven men were convicted of sexually exploiting and raping two white schoolgirls in Rochdale. Ringleader Mohammed Zahid, 64, was known as 'Knickerman' because of his underwear stall on Rochdale's centuries-old market. The depraved father-of-three used his business to target children from troubled backgrounds, grooming the pair from when they were just 13. Between 2001 and 2006 they were treated as 'sex slaves', a trial in Manchester heard, with Zahid passing them on to paedophile taxi drivers in return for payment where they were subjected to further abuse. As well as Zahid, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, Kasir Bashir, 50 – who is on the run after absconding – Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, Nisar Hussain, 41, and Roheez Khan, 39, all face lengthy prison sentences. THE TAKEAWAY BROTHERS Three brothers who used a 'dingy' flat above a takeaway in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, to groom and abuse underage girls were jailed earlier this year. Shaha Amran Miah, 49, Shaha Alman Miah, 47, and Shaha Joman Miah, 38, were all convicted of a string of sexual offences against teenage girls between 2008 and 2010. They were jailed for a total of 54 years. THE CHILDREN'S HOME GANG Seven men who committed a string of child-sex abuse offences against two teenage girls in Rotherham were jailed for a total of 106 years last September. At times the victims were collected by their abusers from children's homes. Mohammed Amar, 42, Mohammed Siyab, 44, Yasser Ajaibe, 39, Mohammed Sadiq, 49, Abid Saddiq, 43, Tahir Yassin, 38, and Ramin Bari, 37, were handed sentences of between six and 25 years. It brought the number of men to face justice in Operation Stovewood – the largest investigation of its kind undertaken in the UK – to 36. It was launched after the Jay Report found that at least 1,400 girls were abused by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
