A 15-year-old youth is due to appear in court on Monday charged with the attempted rape of a mother-of-two.

The alleged attack is said to have taken place on Bank Holiday Monday, May 7, as the woman was walking, with her children, in Green Lane, in the Harrowgate Hill area of Darlington.

The children had cycled on ahead when the alleged attack on the woman, who is in her 30s, took place.

Following police investigations, officers arrested the youth, who is from Darlington, late on Friday afternoon and he was kept in custody at Darlington police station and questioned before being charged.

The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been kept in custody and will appear before Sedgefield Magistrates Court, in Newton Aycliffe, on Monday.