14/12/2015 BBC Newsline

Here on BBC One it's time for the news where you are.

Hundreds of people have attended a vigil outside the home

of Christopher Meli, the 20-year-old man

from West Belfast who was murdered at the weekend.

The young father was attacked by a gang of between 15 and 20

youths in Twinbrook as he walked to a shop while visiting friends.

Five teenagers were being questioned by the police tonight as people

gathered in support of his family in the Springfield Road area.

A family's grief laid bare outside their home.

At times tonight, Christopher's brothers were overcome with sorrow.

His parents struggling to understand their loss.

Several hundred people came to the street

Prayers and offerings of hope for a family dealing

with devastation since the moment they learned

They asked if we had a picture of Christopher.

She looked at the picture and she hugged me and said

And, in the time since that moment, this family has been

Was he kicked around the place like a rag doll?

I reckon Christopher died a very violent death.

he was calling me, I believe he was calling me or both of us.

Christopher was training to become and engineer,

learning to drive, dreaming of a future.

He couldn't wait to get that wee car on the road to go to work.

He begged me, mummy, will you get me the insurance

for Christmas, that's what he wanted.

That's what he wanted, when he passed his test, and now...

The police say Christopher died after a vicious

They also say he was attacked by a number of people in need big group.

-- in a big group. Some of the people in that group may not have

been involved in the attack or anticipated the outcome of the

attack. We are working to establish what happened and who was involved.

It is only a matter of time for we identify everyone who was there and

I am appealing for those people to come forward now and tell police

what they saw. Come to us before we come to you, is the message for

them. And among the hundreds who came

to the vigil tonight, Christopher's friends remembering

a proud young father. He always brought his child into the

conversation, he was the main interest. The day he was born I

remember Christopher standing proud as punch.

Tonight, the community of West Belfast gave support

to the family, and the family of Christopher Meli gave support

A man's been in court charged with killing his mother.

Lija Aroustamova was found dead in Portavogie at the weekend.

The woman's body was found at this semidetached house

in the County Down fishing village of Portavogie in the early hours

She was 52-year-old Lija Aroustamova, who was originally

from Latvia and was understood to have lived and worked in the area

Today her 25-year-old son, Viktors Arustamovs, appeared

in Downpatrick Magistrates' Court charged with her murder.

He too is from Lativa but has no fixed abode.

Viktors Arustamovs appeared in court dressed in

As he stood in the dock, an interpreter explained

the court proceedings and questions in Russian.

He replied in English, giving his date of birth and saying

A police officer told the court he believed he could connect

There was no bail application and Mr Arustamovs was remanded

in custody until 8th January, when he will appear in Newtownards

The parents of three teenage boys who were attacked by a gang

in Londonderry say their sons have been left terrified.

The police are treating the assault, which happened at the city side

entrance of the Peace Bridge, as a sectarian hate crime.

The boys are all Protestants - one is 13, the others

We've spoken to the fathers of two of them who did not

One said the boys could have been killed.

I think it's a disgrace they can't go to the city side and come and go

as they please without being attacked because of their religion.

When they were booting him in the face

He says to me, Dad, I was very lucky not to get thrown into the Foyle.

Hearing that, it could have been a disaster.

We could have been looking at a fatality today

Victims of the Troubles have met the Secretary of State

to push for a resolution of the political disagreement

At the recent inter-party talks there was no agreement on issues

relating to the legacy of the conflict.

After the meeting with Theresa Villiers, the Victims' Forum

said they were more optimistic than before.

I'm quite confident, more confident that I was a couple of weeks ago,

that the Secretary of State will speak to politicians again when they

return in the New Year and hopefully with new energy and a will to

compromise. There must be compromise in this solution to legacy issues.

Politicians are demonstrating willingness to engage. As a

government we put some compromises on the table and national security

questions, right of appeal to the High Court. We feel we stretched

ourselves on that but we are open to consideration of alternatives.

The trial has begun of an evangelical preacher accused

of making grossly offensive remarks about Islam.

Pastor James McConnell denies two charges relating to a sermon he gave

More than 100 of his supporters came to the court, including the DUP MP

Sammy Wilson and the TUV leader Jim Allister.

Football now, and there was a goal fest in tonight's

Danske Bank Premiership game between Portadown and Glentoran,

The home side opened the scoring with this goal by Gary Twigg,

but Glentoran struck back with Marcus Kane scoring

Curtis Allen scored his second of the night for Glentoran

in the 52nd minute to bring the score to 4-3, but this effort

from Twigg sealed the win for the Ports.

On BBC Newsline tomorrow we focus on the 51 Syrian refugees

who are due to arrive from camps in Lebanon.

We talk to others who have already set up home here.

They describe the conditions they left behind.

It's not a normal life, they kill us, you cannot believe it. Nothing,

no electricity, no clean water, that's good food, no milk for them,

especially the babies. They are suffering. It is a difficult, hard

life for them. You can see more on that on BBC

Newsline at 6:30pm tomorrow evening. Tomorrow the Good Morning Ulster

programme will be discussing the refugees, and as Britain's Tim

Peake prepares for take-off to the International Space Station,

an astronaut who has been there is in the studio

recalling his experiences. That's on BBC Radio

Ulster in the morning. After a cloudy day, let's see

if the skies will clear The weather forecast

is next with Cecilia Daly. After the cold weather of the

weekend it may be pleasant to know this week will be mild, so no frost,

temperatures in double figures on most days. Not much sunshine but the

breeze will generally be mild but will bring rain at times so we will

need to monitor that as the ground is saturated. Nothing too heavy

tonight but it will be damp and drizzle later, although by morning

some places will have dry up. Some low cloud may linger in the

rush-hour, making it foggy on high ground, the main area comes in from

the South later in the day. Some drizzle initially but will die out,

the breeze will pick up that this is the main wet weather over the

southern half of Ireland moving north. Moving into Wales, England,

eventually Northern England and there are rain warnings in force for

Yorkshire, but much of Scotland will be dry and milder, so there will be

a law of the snow covering much of the Scottish Highlands. Wet from

late afternoon onwards, heavy bursts of rain accompanied by blustery

winds, the rain will die away on Tuesday night, not as a wet on

Wednesday with a lot of dry weather and temperatures in low teens. That

is the main theme, it will be mild, some rain at times but overall not

that heavy. And that's all from me. Good night.