Two youths due in court over murder in Ballymena

Two juveniles are due this morning before the Magistrates' Court in Coleraine, Co Derry, to answer charges in connection with…

Two juveniles are due this morning before the Magistrates' Court in Coleraine, Co Derry, to answer charges in connection with the murder of Michael McIlveen.

One of the youths is aged 15 and will face a murder charge. The other is 16 and is expected to face a charge of affray. Neither can be named for legal reasons.

This will bring to seven the total now charged in the case, all of them teenagers. Five were charged with murder last week and are on remand to reappear in court early next month.

The police investigation continued at the weekend with an operation at the car park were the Catholic teenager was beaten.

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Offices have also spoken to people who live along the route thought to have been taken by Michael McIlveen as he was chased by a hostile crowd from the town's cinema to the car park where he was fatally attacked with a baseball bat.

The dead youth's sister Jodie McIlveen (16) helped police distribute handouts requesting further information, police confirmed. The PSNI has thanked the people of Ballymena for their co-operation, but repeated a call for more witnesses to come forward. In particular they want to talk to more than 20 people they believe were in the vicinity of the car park at the cinema where they said an "altercation" took place involving Michael McIlveen and a loyalist gang.

The senior investigating officer, Det Supt Raymond Murray, said he was grateful for the help received from the public.

A police spokesman added: "Detectives particularly want to speak to anyone who was in the car park of the IMC Cinema at Larne Road in the town at any time between 11.30pm on Saturday and 1am the following day."

They are also continuing to examine video evidence from CCTV cameras in the area and have stepped up foot patrols to prevent rising sectarian tensions spilling over into further violence.

The DUP-controlled council has opened a book of condolence, while James Currie, an Ulster Unionist councillor, has appealed to young Protestants not to allow themselves get caught up in loyalist gangs. At 12.30pm Mass yesterday in All Saints - the largest Catholic church in Ballymena - Fr Paul Symonds urged parishioners to be "anti-sectarian in thought, word and deed" in the wake of the murder.

It is understood the body of the murdered teenager has still to be released for burial and the funeral is not now expected until midweek. Assembly members are to observe a minute's silence when they gather in Stormont this morning.