A man (22) is due in court today charged with withholding information about a car theft in Co Antrim during which a 16-month-old baby was thrown out of the moving car.
The man was detained by detectives investigating the theft in a supermarket car park in Lisburn yesterday during which the baby's father was also beaten and had part of his ear bitten off.
The accused was also charged with two counts of driving while disqualified, two of driving without insurance and one of dangerous driving. Police said those charges were not related to the incident.
The baby's father was beaten with wooden bats when he stopped to challenge three men he saw trying to steal another car. The gang made off in his car with the sleeping baby in the back seat. As they sped from the car park they tossed the child out of the moving Ford Focus. The child was unhurt.
A second man who tried to intervene had his car rammed by the escaping thieves when he tried to use it to block their way through the car park exit.
The stolen car was later found burned out in Poleglass on the western outskirts of Belfast.
PA