"The PPS has a duty to keep prosecution decisions under consideration and take into account any change in circumstances that occurs as the case proceeds. Where new information or evidence becomes available, it will be considered along with all the existing information and evidence in the case and the test for prosecution applied. We have recently been made aware of significant evidential developments in this case."
"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. The prosecution team and the police investigation team met with the complainant and her family this morning to explain the reasons for the decision. All charges faced by both defendants were formally withdrawn at Laganside Youth Court on Friday."
Two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, had attempted-rape charges withdrawn after significant evidential developments. The charges related to an alleged serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the Clonavon Terrace area of Ballymena in June. The boys had been in custody since their court appearance in June and addressed the court through a Romanian interpreter. The incident sparked days of race-related anti-immigration rioting in Ballymena and linked sporadic outbreaks of violence in other parts of Northern Ireland. The Public Prosecution Service stated that new information was considered and the evidential test for prosecution was no longer met. All charges were formally withdrawn at Laganside Youth Court.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
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