Police to investigate BBC callers' rape claims

An investigation has begun into claims that police have failed to follow up on two possible leads concerning the rape of a 15-year-old girl in west Belfast at the weekend.

The claims were made during BBC Radio Ulster's morning phone-in show hosted by Stephen Nolan when two callers said they contacted police with information which had yet to be acted upon.

The first caller said he had phoned Grosvenor Road police station with information on Saturday.

"They said that they weren't dealing with it and put me through to Lisburn," he said.

"The guy got back to me a couple of minutes later and said 'they are busy at the minute, can I take your details', I said certainly and gave him my name, address and telephone number."

He said the officers would get back to him as soon as they could, however he said he was "still waiting".

A second caller to the show said he got information from a passenger as he worked driving his taxi.

"The young fella' actually described one of the assailants, he actually named him," he said.

"He told me the area that one of these people were from and gave me a full description."

The taxi driver said he had yet to receive any follow up calls from the police.

Commenting on the claims, Chief Supt Ken Henning said he could not explain what had happened. He said that if the individuals had contacted police and if their details had been taken, then he would expect police to come back to them given the nature of the inquiry.

The girl, who was on holiday from England, was walking along Blacks Road in the early hours of Saturday with three teenage boys when they were confronted by two young men armed with a metal bar and a screwdriver.

She was attacked by one of the assailants who dragged her to a filling station and raped her before forcing the teenagers into a golf centre, where the same man raped the girl again.

Police investigating the incident described the attack as "absolutely horrendous".

(MB/SP)