A magistrate has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions in the North to speed up the preparation of a case involving a 14-year-old east Tyrone boy charged with raping an eight-year-old girl.
Magistrate Mrs Sarah Creanor made the request at Cookstown Juvenile Court yesterday after the boy's solicitor, Mr Jarlath Faloon, protested that seven months had elapsed since the boy was first charged. The boy, who is also accused of indecently assaulting the girl five days after the alleged rape in March, was remanded on bail for one month.