A 16-year-old youth appeared in court yesterday denying he twice raped a 15-year-old girl from the north of England who was holidaying in Belfast.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was accused of raping, robbing and assaulting the girl when he appeared before Lisburn Magistrates' Court in Co Antrim.
The teenager, from west Belfast, stood silently in the dock of the court during the brief hearing in which 12 charges were put to him.
He was accused of twice raping the girl on August 6th and a further charge of indecently assaulting her on the same day.
He was further charged with four identical counts of robbing her of a mobile phone, jewellery and money to the value of £120 armed with an iron bar, four counts of assaulting a female and unlawfully imprisoning her against her will, and one of grievous bodily harm against a male.
Magistrate Alan White remanded him in custody to reappear before the same court via video link on August 30th.
A detective sergeant told the court that when he charged the youth last night, he replied not guilty to all charges.
The PSNI officer said he believed he could connect the accused with all the offences.
In answer to a solicitor representing the teenager, he agreed the accused had arranged to go to police with his parents in Newry, Co Down, by prior arrangement yesterday.
The solicitor said his client would be "strenuously denying any wrongdoing" and had done so continuously while in police custody.
On Saturday, another 16-year-old was remanded in custody charged with aiding and abetting in the rapes, robbing and assaulting a female and assaulting a male.
He too was remanded until August 30th.