Man to be charged in connection with teenager's knife murder

Police were today expected to charge a man with the murder of teenager Thomas Devlin who was stabbed to death in a north Belfast street nearly four years ago.

The man was arrested earlier today and a police spokesman said he was due to appear at Belfast Magistrates Court later.

The 15-year-old died in a knife attack as he and two friends walked home from buying sweets at a filling station in the Fortwilliam area in August 2005.

The arrest came as the Northern Ireland Office, and PSNI launched a major campaign aimed at schoolchildren in a bid to cut down knife crimes which are running at around 1,000 a year.

Thomas Devlin’s parents had an input into the campaign and met with police and producers from a theatre company which has made a play to tour around schools in the North warning of the dangers of knife crime.