Mother says rape victim's life in ruins

A mother whose daughter was raped in Belfast said last night that the girl's life was in ruins.

A mother whose daughter was raped in Belfast said last night that the girl's life was in ruins.

The 15-year-old was brutally attacked twice by a man armed with a screwdriver while on holiday in west Belfast.

After the assault he used a stolen mobile phone to call and text her mother at home in the north of England and gloat over what he had done.

As police in Belfast intensified their hunt for the rapist and a second man who forced three boys with the girl to watch the horrific ordeal, the victim's mother told how she had been destroyed.

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The woman, who has not been identified, said: "She's not the same girl we sent over here. We sent over a lively, confident, bubbly teenage girl. And now she's withdrawn and clingy and scared."

The girl was dragged into an empty petrol station forecourt on Blacks Road and raped early on Saturday morning. The three boys were stripped to the waist and beaten with an iron bar before all four were taken to a nearby golfing complex where a second assault took place.

The girl's mother demanded justice for her daughter. Pleading for those who know the rapist to give him up, she told BBC Radio Ulster: "I want these people to pay for what they've done. They are very distinctive. The descriptions are very detailed, somebody must know who they are. What sort of people would know who they are and say nothing?"

Police arrested one man and later released him until further inquiries are carried out. Phone records of two mobiles stolen during the attack are also being examined.