12 year old NI rape victim escorted to England by police to seize evidence

• This is a legacy of sectarian rule.

I wouldn't put it quite like that, given that support for abortion is about the one thing the catholics and the particular brand of Protestantism dominant in NI agree on.

Though I suppose sectarianism has been a major force in holding back the reforming light of secularisation.

I hope the police accompanying her did so in a very protective and sympathetic way, in order to make sure that her and her family's wishes for justice were more likely.

But I have such little faith in the police and the NI justice system. I hope none of this "evidence" is use against her.

"There. Is. No. Abortion. Allowed. At. All."

Replace full stops and with exclamation marks and shout it in an Ian Paisley accent. Then you get the general idea.

What was the purpose of seizing evidence? Was it against her or her rapist?

How could it possibly be 'against her'? Whoever impregnated a 12 yo has committed a crime and hopefully will be brought to justice. It may be that the police presence was to make sure the evidence is 100% watertight to make damn sure that happens.

Awful that she couldn't be treated humanely near her home. How the hell do NI laws not allow for an abortion in the case of a raped 12yo?

Thanks Treacle it should be a crime making her go through a pregnancy at that age.
Again poor bloody bairn

Would it still be a crime to abort taking her age in to account?

It would be in N Ireland but there is no law preventing her from travelling to another part of the UK.

I think there are a few exceptions to the law, as in if the mother's life is in imminent danger, but being 12 and it being generally bad for your health to be pregnant and give birth isn't classed as endangering the mother's life.

The Belfast Telegraph published this story last week and some of the pro lifers were adamant that this has never happened, that no such girl exists, that it's all a fiction to try to get permission to kill babies. And, perhaps even worse, there were some who said that if she was old enough to become pregnant she obviously was a woman, not a child and therefore should bear the consequences of having sex.

Yet our woman prime minister is so enamoured by the politicians enabling this bigotry that she has 'promoted' the DUP to a vital role in propping the government up (not very effectively it has to be said).

Would it still be a crime to abort taking her age in to account?

Poor child, what will it take for NI to change the law. Women and girls matter so little, it seems.

I would assume the police either didn't know who her attacker was, or didn't believe her. Hence retaining the evidence for DNA tests.

12 years old. I could cry for that poor child

Poor bairn.

Terrible. The poor girl has been through so much. What was the purpose of seizing evidence? Was it against her or her rapist?