Anti-migrant riots have erupted in Northern Ireland, leading to 15 police officers being injured and four houses being set alight, after two teenagers, thought to be Romanian, were charged with the sexual assault of a girl. The Telegraph has more.
Two 14- ear-old boys appeared at a local court by videolink on Monday charged with attempted rape. The charges were read to them by a Romanian interpreter.
Violence erupted in Ballymena in County Antrim on Monday night after a peaceful vigil of hundreds of people was held in the town centre.
North Antrim MP Jim Allister said Ballymena had been “overburdened” by “unchecked migration”, which was a source of “past and future tensions”.
The victim’s family condemned the riots, which were reminiscent of the disorder sparked in England and Northern Ireland after the murder of three girls at a dance class in Southport.
Asking that justice be served “in the correct manner”, the family said that they were in “no way involved or condone any trouble that happened” after the peaceful protest.
After splitting from the vigil and setting up barricades in the Clonavon Terrace area of the town, masked rioters threw petrol bombs, masonry, fireworks and bricks at police over several hours.
Several officers needed hospital treatment and two police vehicles were damaged. Police fired one AEP rubber bullet baton round, hitting one rioter. A 29 year-old man was arrested.
Social media footage showed thugs punching through the windows of one home and setting fire to the curtains. One man shouted “paedo protectors” at the house.
In total, four houses were set ablaze and firefighters had to save three people. In one video, one woman was recorded saying, “If they are not local, let them f***ing stay there.”
There were unsubstantiated claims online, including by far-Right agitator Tommy Robinson, that the suspects lived in some of the targeted houses.
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