'Abused' teen stable after shooting

Paramilitary gunmen who shot a 14-year-old Belfast boy in the leg were today branded child abusers.

The boy is reported to be in a stable condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital after treatment to the wound on his left leg.

He is believed to have been abducted from his home in the nationalist Ardoyne area and held for five hours last night before being dumped bleeding beside a grotto at the rear of Fianna House, a flats complex in the New Lodge area.

Teenagers have at times been shot or beaten in paramilitary attacks for so-called anti-social behaviour, but the latest victim is thought to be one of the youngest ever to be shot.

Dissident republicans are thought to have been behind the shooting and the SDLP Lord Mayor of Belfast, Martin Morgan, accused those responsible of reaching “a new level of depravity, a new level of sickness”.

Mr Morgan added: “The community has to reject these people. They are nothing better than child abusers.

“We are talking about a 14-year-old boy, under any other circumstances there would be a public outcry and the those responsible called child abusers.”

The shooting was also condemned by Sinn Féin. North Belfast councillor Margaret McClenaghan said: “If this is for some activity he has been involved in, then the way through this is community restorative justice.

“It's the only way community disputes can be resolved.”