EXCLUSIVE Revealed: 'Boastful' Romanian wrongly arrested over 'sexual assault of girl' in Ballymena goes public to protest his innocence and says mob violence has caused his family to flee the country
A Romanian in Ballymena has claimed he has 'lost everything' and his family has been forced to flee abroad after he was wrongly arrested following the alleged attempted rape of a local schoolgirl.
The 28-year-old father-of-two named Alex said his home and car were attacked by anti-immigrant rioters while he was in custody and again a second time when he returned home after being released without charge.
Two 14-year old boys had earlier appeared in court charged with attempted rape, needing a Romanian interpreter to follow proceedings.
Alex claims his family have suffered 'indescribable threats' and 'humiliation' in the past week. He and his wife are in hiding while his mother has taken his two daughters to Romania because they are not safe in Ballymena.
But he has apologised after a series of boorish and defiant social media posts, including one where he blew kisses and waved money on camera. In another he appeared dismiss his Audi being destroyed by rioters.
On Monday night, following social media speculation, Alex has said he was arrested and questioned in relation to the Ballymena serious sexual assault. He was released unconditionally and without charge by the PSNI.
He said in a Facebook post, translated from Romanian: 'I have lost everything because of false accusations. I lost my house where I lived, my car, all my belongings. But the biggest regret is that I lost the chance to offer my children a better future. And all this without having done anything wrong.
'My family and I are not guilty, we all came for a better life, no one wants problems, we are modest people, people who fear God', he added.
Alex's Audi was destroyed on his drive and his home attacked twice
He has been criticised locally after a series of defiant social media posts since two Romanian teenagers were charged with the alleged sex attack.
He has apologised if he offended anyone in Northern Ireland but admitted he can be 'boastful' and likes to be 'centre of attention'. He also says he wants 'justice' for the schoolgirl allegedly attacked by the two teenagers, who deny the charge.
In one TikTok reel that emerged after riots began in Ballymena he was shown blowing kisses to the camera before waving a giant wodge of cash outside the town's courthouse following an unrelated matter involving a family member.
Critics claimed it was then shared by one of his relatives who made provocative comments.
In another social media message, after his Audi was attacked, Alex wrote in Romanian: 'Plenty more fish [in the sea]' over a picture of the smashed up luxury vehicle on his drive.
Alex has now publicly defended himself and his family, who he says are 'traumatised' and 'scared' by the riots and multiple attacks on his home.
He said: 'I admit I am "boastful". That is my character and I apologise if I upset anyone. It was not my intention'.
While he was in custody his home was attacked and his Audi car destroyed in the riots. After his release his house was attacked again, while he was inside, and he hid in the loft before escaping out the back of the house after smashing a hole in his roof.
In a Facebook post he also shared on local forums in Ballymena and Northern Ireland, Alex admitted he was the man arrested in relation to the alleged attempted rape of a schoolgirl that has sparked riots this week.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement, not naming him: 'A 28-year-old man was arrested on Monday June 9. He has been unconditionally released from police custody following questioning'.
Describing what happened on Monday, the day of his arrest, he said: 'I learned on social media that there was speculation that I had sexually assaulted a minor.
'On Monday evening, my wife, my five-year-old daughter, and someone who helped us translate showed up at the hospital in Antrim because my daughter wasn't feeling well.
'While waiting, I was filmed against my will and posted on social media, and then a police team showed up and arrested me in front of my wife and daughter.
'I was wrongly accused of being the third person to accuse them of sexual activity with a minor. The police took me to Antrim police station. I was in custody for almost 24 hours'.
Alex's long statement on Facebook
On Tuesday he said his wife became 'scared' and 'sent my mother and the two little girls to the country (Romania) because they had threatened to break in and kill them'.
After he was released from police custody he said his house was attacked while he was inside.
'Shortly after I arrived at my home in Ballymena I heard knocking on doors and windows.
'Screams with indescribable threats. I got scared. I didn't know what was happening I wanted to leave my home but I couldn't I was surrounded by people.
'I climbed into the attic, I broke the roof and I came out through the back of the house and found a safe place'.
He went on: 'My wife and my little girls were traumatised, as well as the rest of the family.
'I was wrongly accused and the police did their job. If I did these acts I was accused of I would not be released'.
He added that he had video evidence that he was at home with his family all evening when the alleged attempted rape took place.
'I have been living in the UK since 2016 since then I have a job. I imagine what the parents of the girl who was abused is going through. I am also a parent of two girls and I can't imagine what I would have done to get justice.
He added: 'I apologise to everyone. I hope justice is done'.
Fifteen rioters have been arrested as 41 police officers were injured amid unrest in Northern Ireland following the alleged sexual assault of a girl by Romanian teens.
Rioting continued for the fourth consecutive night.
Terrified foreign nationals are now considering fleeing the province amid rioting in a bid to protect their families.
Maria, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said: 'Why do they attack us? What did we do?'
The tearful Romanian, 38, added: 'I don't want to run, cause I did nothing bad...
'[But] when I go in the street people are looking at us very bad... they blame me... When they say go home, I say, home is here for me.'
Missiles were also thrown at officers after a protest in Portadown on Thursday, continuing a trend that was sparked earlier in the week in Ballymena.
Around 400 protestors are understood to have gathered in the County Armagh town where people were seen setting fires and causing damage to a derelict building.
Three teenagers also appeared in court yesterday in connection with recent riots.
Police and politicians have denounced the ongoing violence within the community, which has been dubbed 'racist thuggery'.
Northern Ireland's police chief said those being targeted 'are not criminals', noting their positive impact on society, describing them as 'valued members of society'.
However as tensions continue, in an unprecedented move, some households have begun to display British or Northern Irish flags in their windows.
Blanka Harnagea, who has lived with her family in the region for five years, said the flags served as a kind of 'protection' amid the unrest.
'We put (the flags) as a sign of peace... to say that we are not against them,' said the 38-year-old originally from the Czech Republic.
The mother-of-five, who is considering leaving, said: 'We are a bit worried they keep going on because some people said that they are not gonna stop until everybody who is not from Ireland has left.'
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The Ballymena violence has nothing to do with ‘protecting women'. It is racism, pure and simple
In 1972, loyalist paramilitaries fired bullets into the home of a Catholic woman, Sarah McClenaghan. That night she was at home with her lodger, a Protestant, and her disabled teenage son, David. After forcing her son to get his mother's rosary beads, proving that she was Catholic, a loyalist paramilitary raped Sarah. David was tortured. The gang then shot them both, David dying of his wounds. I thought about David and Sarah as I watched rolling news of the pogroms in Ballymena. I thought about them in light of the lie that violence against women and girls has been imported to Northern Ireland via migrants or asylum seekers. It's always been here. The rioters say they are acting to drive out foreigners who pose a threat to women and girls. The irony isn't lost on anybody with knowledge of the local area. Modern-day loyalist paramilitaries are reportedly involved with the violence. In the Belfast Telegraph this week, journalist Allison Morris reported that members of the South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association are among the rioters. 'The organisation,' she writes, 'has been regularly named by our sister paper, the Sunday Life, as protecting sex offenders.' Morris regularly faces death threats for her brave reporting. The riots in Ballymena are about racism and nothing more. Hatred smothers every brick and petrol bomb thrown. Nobody causing trouble cares about women or children. There are no legitimate concerns at the heart of this. Local Facebook groups with links to the far right are asking for addresses to hit – Roma people are the main target of their ire. Flyers posted around towns and cities call for people to take a stand to protect 'our women' and 'our Christian values'. The trigger for the violence in Ballymena was the trauma and pain of a local family. Earlier in the week, two 14-year-old boys were arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a young girl. Romanian interpreters were required at court. After the arrests, the alleged victim's family asked for support and solidarity from their local community. Hundreds did so, peacefully protesting to show the family that they weren't alone. Then came the violence. The chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the victim of the alleged assault has been 'further traumatised' by the rioting. Her family have publicly called for the violence to stop. Women have never been safe in Northern Ireland. Generations bore the weight of the Troubles, running households and raising children with absent husbands. Hundreds were murdered in the conflict. During the peace talks that led to the Good Friday agreement, the Women's Coalition, a political party, described the 30-year conflict as an 'armed patriarchy'. Northern Ireland isn't a place where women and girls are cherished. The PSNI recorded 4,090 sexual offences in Northern Ireland in 2023-24. Twenty-five women have been killed in five years, mostly by white men from Northern Ireland. I knew one of them: Natalie McNally. We used to be mates. She last contacted me to ask about the home-buying process (I used to be a conveyancing solicitor). Natalie was buying her first house and the process was dragging on. She was killed in that same house in December 2022, her 15-week-old son in her belly. I was holding my own four-week-old son when I learned that she was dead. The trial is due to take place in November, with the accused previously indicating that he is pleading not guilty. Well, some say, if we have lots of homegrown criminals, we don't need more. This is, again, another racist argument, an age-old trope that non-white men are sexual deviants. The problem is men, full stop. In every country in the world, in every community and every faith, people hate women. Misogyny doesn't respect borders. Fascists want to talk about foreign men to distract from their own disgusting behaviour. Immigration concerns have featured heavily in the news. Because of the Troubles, Northern Ireland always had low levels of migration. That has changed in recent years. Net migration reached its highest levels in 15 years in 2024. No doubt this has changed certain areas and proved alienating for local people and migrants alike. However, according to a Northern Ireland assembly report, Northern Ireland is still the least diverse region of the UK. Only 3.4% of people are from a minority ethnic group, compared to 18.3% in England. Before migrant numbers rose, Northern Ireland's public services were on their knees. The health service has all but collapsed. The housing system is under considerable strain, we don't have enough housing to meet demand and rents have risen to unaffordable levels. People have migrated into this mess. It would be churlish to deny that higher numbers have put pressure on the system. But it's a flat-out lie to blame migrants and refugees for this country's ills. Migrants didn't decimate the NHS. Refugees didn't underfund social housing and homeless services. Local and national politicians did that. They are doing very little to fix the systems that broke under their watch. It's easier to blame people working as Deliveroo drivers. Northern Ireland needs to tackle its fondness for racism and xenophobia. Racially motivated hate crime is at its highest level since records began. It affects every community, Catholic and Protestant. You can't 'legitimate concern' your way through a pogrom and doing so only validates hatred. If women in Northern Ireland rioted every time one of us was attacked, the country would lie in ashes. Sarah Creighton is a lawyer, writer and political commentator from Northern Ireland
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Yobs hurl petrol bombs, fireworks and bottles at cops in FIFTH night of riots as chaos spreads to new town
MASKED yobs hurled petrol bombs and fireworks at cops for a fifth night in Northern Ireland, in what has been dubbed a "week of shame" for the region. Cops battled another night of violence as thugs continued to cause widespread devastation. 3 3 3 After serious public disorder erupted in Ballymena on Monday, the focus of the violence and unrest has since shifted to Portadown. One officer was directly in the impact of a petrol bomb that landed behind a line of police vehicles during a sustained standoff with those participating in the unrest yesterday. Fireworks, masonry, and bottles were among other items thrown at riot police deployed in the town. Shortly before midnight, the PSNI used a water cannon on the crowd in an effort to disperse those gathered on West Street into other areas. The force used the water cannon again at around 12.30am on Saturday. Elsewhere on Friday, there were reports of disruption and damage to public property as riot police responded to another protest in the Tullyally area of Londonderry. It came after a senior officer said there would be a "scaled-up" policing presence across Northern Ireland in anticipation of further disorder over the weekend. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the mobilisation, which would include officers sent over from Scotland, was "to reassure our communities and protect our streets". Violence originally erupted on Monday, stemming from an initially peaceful gathering to support a girl and her family after an alleged sexual assault. Two 14-year-old boys appeared in court charged with attempted rape on Monday. A third man, 28, was also arrested over the alleged sexual assault. The boys confirmed their names - which cannot be reported - and their ages through a Romanian interpreter at Coleraine Magistrates' Court. But within hours of their court appearance, disorder broke out in Co Antrim. Families in the town of Ballymena have been forced to flee their homes as the riots continue. Crowds set fire to piles of furniture in the middle of the streets, homes were set alight, and multiple cars went up in flames. Harrowing photos from the last two nights show the charred remains of residents' property. Footage showed masked and hooded rioters lobbing petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks at cops trying to calm the unrest on Tuesday. Officers fired baton rounds and water cannon in a desperate bid to keep the mobs at bay.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
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‘Where are the foreigners': does a facile explanation lie behind Ballymena's outbreak of hate?
First came the shouts as the crowd worked its way through narrow terraced streets, proclaiming its mission to rid the town of 'scum'. Then came the shattered glass as rocks exploded through windows. Then the flames, licking up curtains and spreading to sofas, carpets, books and framed pictures until smoke billowed into the summer night. They might have been scenes from another century, another country, but they played out in Northern Ireland this week in the glare of rolling news and social media, which recorded a soundtrack of glee and hate. 'Where are the foreigners?' the mob shouted. The targets were families that were different – different nationality, different ethnicity, different skin tone, different language. The goal was expulsion – or immolation. 'There's someone in that room inside,' said a voice caught on video. 'Aye, but are they local?' responded a comrade. 'If they're local, they need out. If they're not local, let them stay there.' No one died in Ballymena, the County Antrim town that erupted on Monday and flared for the rest of the week, or in other towns with smaller, copycat mayhem, but families fled, dozens of police were injured and Northern Ireland faced stark questions about racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Three decades ago, the Good Friday agreement drew a line under the Troubles. Republican paramilitaries that wanted a united Ireland, and loyalist paramilitaries that wanted the region to remain in the UK, wound down the killing. Peace brought the novelty of immigration and diversity. In the 2001 census just 14,300 people, or 0.8% of the overall population, belonged to a minority ethnic group. By 2021 it was 65,600 people, or 3.4%. Compared with England (18%), or Scotland (11%), Northern Ireland remains very white. Despite this, many residents in Ballymena, a mainly working-class, Protestant town 25 miles north of Belfast, believe foreigners have 'invaded', 'infested' and 'ruined' their community. It was not only the hundreds of young men in hoods and masks who hurled missiles: older residents, during lulls in violence, endorsed the disturbances. 'We want our voices to be heard. If this is the only way, so be it,' said one woman in her 30s, who declined to be named. The Police Federation of Northern Ireland said its members, by drawing the wrath of mobs, had averted a pogrom. The spark was an alleged sexual assault on a teenage girl by two 14-year-old boys, who appeared in court with a Romanian interpreter and were charged with attempted rape. Loyalist groups in other areas took that as their cue to protest. 'It's time to take a stand and stop welcoming these illegal migrant gangs flocking into our town, paedophiles, drug pushers, human traffickers, prostitutes,' said a group in Portadown, exhorting people to march on a hostel. Such hostility has a blunt, facile explanation: some communities do not like outsiders – a broad, evolving category known occasionally in Northern Ireland as 'them 'uns'. Protestant loyalist mobs in Belfast burned Catholics from their homes at the outset of the Troubles in 1969. Ballymena earned notoriety in the 1990s and mid-2000s with sectarian attacks on Catholic schools and churches. Loyalists in nearby towns have been blamed for a sporadic campaign of paint bombs, smashed windows, graffiti and threatening posters targeting non-white residents. Last year at least eight African families – half of them including nurses – were forced to flee an estate in Antrim town. 'There is fundamental racism in some places that, to put it nicely, have a proud sense of social and cultural cohesion,' said Malachi O'Doherty, a commentator and author of How to Fix Northern Ireland. Communities that are accustomed to living on the same estate can bristle when outsiders take houses that might otherwise have gone to friends or relatives, he said. 'Whether it's Catholics or Roma, it's seen as a dilution of that community.' Just 4.9% of Ballymena's population is non-white, according to the 2021 census, and very few of the new arrivals are asylum seekers, yet there is widespread belief in proliferating 'scrounging refugees', and scepticism about official statistics. 'What we're reading is completely different from what the government is telling us,' said one resident in his 50s. The riots were welcome and overdue, although, he said, the noise was disturbing his sleep. The current strife has a seasonal aspect: summer is when loyalists – and to a lesser extent republicans – assert their identity by parading with drums and flutes and lighting bonfires, traditions that fuel tension and confrontation. Catholics have joined Protestants in anti-immigrant actions and staged their own protests in Catholic areas, but those eruptions tend to be smaller and less frequent. 'Catholics almost take a sectarian pride in not being racist. 'Oh, we're not like them,'' said O'Doherty. Despite a gritty reputation, Northern Ireland scores better for housing, unemployment and poverty than many parts of England, Wales and Scotland. However, it has some of the worst education attainment rates in the UK and the highest rate of economically inactive people, metrics that hint at the alienation and hopelessness felt in some Catholic and Protestant working-class areas. An education system that largely segregates the two main blocs also tends to silo minority ethnic pupils, said Rebecca Loader, a social science researcher at Queen's University Belfast. 'You have schools that have no diversity and schools with high levels, perhaps just separated by a few miles. Certain classes of people are never meeting. It's not conducive to meeting and learning about the other.' Also, very little in Northern Ireland's curriculum addresses racism, unlike curriculums in Britain, especially Wales, she said. Two factors, neither unique to Northern Ireland, have aggravated the tension. One is politics. Leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned the violence and appealed for calm, as they did last August during a similar flare-up. However, critics say some unionist parties – which represent loyalism – give mixed signals by defending 'legitimate protest' and amplifying immigration myths. Political unity fractured on Thursday after Gordon Lyons, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) communities minister, complained on social media that he had not been consulted about a leisure centre in Larne hosting families evacuated from Ballymena. A short time later, a mob set the centre on fire. Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, called on Lyons to reflect on his comments. Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister, suggested he should resign. Paul Sceeny, an interim manager at the North West Migrants Forum in Derry, said growing international antipathy to immigrants was affecting Northern Ireland. 'People are becoming emboldened to use racist tropes. It's part of a wider pattern,' he said. The other factor is social media. Protest organisers use Facebook, TikTok and other platforms to rally support and broadcast the results. In Ballymena, rioters reportedly requested likes, follows and gifts from viewers while livestreaming the destruction of a house. During the daytime calm this week, while authorities cleared debris from streets and foreign families packed up and left, youths huddled over phones and analysed clips, like actors reviewing a performance, seeking ways to improve before the next show.
