Police probing sex assault on two four year old boys

SHOCKED parents have  been left distressed after two four year-old boys were sexually assaulted by children twice their age.

And one wee boy was strangled, held by his throat against a wall and sexually abused.

But the PSNI can do nothing about it because the suspects are below the age of criminal intent which is ten years old.

Now the case has been referred to social services.

The story was first revealed this morning on the front page of the Daily Mirror.

And the revelations come just 24 hours after Justice Minister David Ford, a former social worker, announced in the Stormont Assembly that he would like the age of criminal intent to be raised to 12.

The mother of one of the boys has now spoken to Wendy Austin on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback that her son had been playing with the other boys.

She said she did not know what had happened until he became distressed that night.

“I had lifted my young son, he has fallen asleep on the settee, and I lifted him to take him to bed,” she said.

“He woke up crying hysterically and I thought maybe he’d had a bad dream, I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him.

“I tried to reassure him, tell him it was OK. When I got him upstairs I tried to undress him because he still had his clothes on and he wouldn’t let me take his trousers off. He was just frantic, distressed.”

She said she then phoned an out-of-hours GP who referred her to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. At the A&E he was examined by a doctor.

“We got him calmed down a bit and she got more out of him. He named two boys who he told her he had been playing with along with his wee friend and that they were playing a game.

“One of the bigger boys was Batman, the other bigger boy was Two Face and he was the Joker.

One of the boys had strangled him, held his throat and held him against the wall and the other boy pulled his trousers and his pants down and put the finger up his bum.”

The next day she took him to the PSNI rape crisis unit where he was examined by a forensic doctor.

“They took DNA swabs etc, told me nothing could really be done because the two boys were under the age of criminal prosecution.

“The age of criminal prosecution is 10 and one of them is nine and one of them is eight. So they forwarded the swabs on the social services.

“There’s medical evidence there, my son has a fissure tear in his back-passage. There’s forensic medical evidence to show this was done, this has happened.”

“At the moment the doctor has prescribed him Diazepam and he’s on sleeping medicine as well. His behaviour is just through the roof, which is only normal – hopefully that will settle down.

“I have been on the phone trying to get counselling for him and hopefully soon we’ll get something sorted out. As far as his injuries are concerned, he’s OK in that respect.”

“It was very distressing, for him and for myself. It’s not something that a mother wants to have to endure. It was horrific and his injuries were horrific.”

The South Eastern Health Trust is providing support to the families.