The trial date was set and put back on 9 seperate occasions before the 14-year-old boy who raped her was finally brought to trial. On one of these occasions everyone was in court but the judge. He hadn't bothered to inform anyone that he would not be turning up.

Continually being built up and let down in this way did nothing for Lindsay's state of mind and she became more and more upset.

Once the matter came to court, John Carruthers QC, the rapist's defence counsel, asked her to hold up the underwear she had been wearing that evening on three seperate occasions.

The humiliation the young girl felt at this cynical attempt to undermine her already fragile confidence, led directly to her death.

Lindsay committed suicide in her bedroom with an overdose of anti-depressants on the 16th of July, 2002, just days after her ordeal in the witness box.

On the 20th of December, 2002, The Daily Record reported thus:

"The Daily Record today names boy rapist Lee Don Bell, the callous thug who drove Lindsay Armstrong to suicide. Until today, Bell has been allowed to hide behind a legal system that seems to care more for the criminal than the victim.

He has never shown any remorse.

The system said that Bell was too young to be identified. He was 14 when he raped Lindsay, and 15 when convicted. But yesterday, he celebrated his 16th birthday at the 'holiday camp' secure school where he is doing his time. That means he can no longer hide behind the law. And Lindsay's grieving parents are glad his cover has been blown. Mum Linda said:

'Bell should have been exposed long before this. He was old enough to rape, so he should have been old enough to face up to his crime. Bell must never be allowed to forget that he raped and killed our wee lassie. We will make sure he doesn't.'

Lindsay, 17, killed herself days after giving evidence against Bell. His refusal to admit his guilt meant she had to take the stand.

Bell's lawyer, John Carruthers QC, forced Lindsay three times to hold up the panties she was wearing on the night of the rape. He wanted to discredit her, but his tactics were widely condemned...

Bell lived a few streets from Lindsay in New Cumnock, Ayrshire. He was well known as a thug and petty criminal from a rough family, and Lindsay had no contact with him before the rape. His mother, Elma, still refuses to admit that he is a rapist. One local resident said:

'She is contemptuous of Lindsay and thinks it was all her fault.'

The boy's father, Robert, is a heavy drinker who swigged cider outside court on the first day of his son's trial.

Bell went to the same school as Lindsay, but was suspended at the time of the rape for assaulting another boy.

It was the latest in a string of exclusions. Bell's teachers described him as a 'nightmare'.

On September 7 last year, Lindsay got the 10.45pm bus from Cumnock to New Cumnock after an evening with her pals. Bell saw her get off and followed her. In Greenhead Park, yards from her home, he threw her to the ground and raped her.

Then he coolly walked away, leaving his victim sobbing.

The attack turned Lindsay's life upside down. She had hoped to travel the world , and use her excellent Standard Grade results to help her become a lawyer. But Bell had robbed her of her confidence.

Lindsay told her school she couldn't face going back. She got little support, so she left and took a job as a clerical assistant. At the same time, Bell was being taught at home at public expense. A private tutor spent three hours every day trying to get him to learn something.

Elma spoiled Bell rotten all his life. She bought him a quad bike to stop him stealing cars.

And even after he raped Lindsay, the little thug kept getting an easy ride. Trial judge Lord McEwan told him he was a danger to women. But the sentence handed down was only four years. The court refused a string of requests from newspapers for permission to name the rapist.

Bell was sent to Kerelaw House, a secure school for young offenders. The unit has no bars on the windows, and bosses are proud of its top- class leisure and teaching facilities. Youngsters are allowed TVs and computers in their rooms. Critics describe Kerelaw as a holiday camp.

Elma claims expenses from the public purse to visit Bell three times a week. She also got help with a new mortgage when local anger forced her out of New Cumnock and back to her parents' home

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, Elma gets in her Honda Civic, picks up Robert, now her estranged husband, and heads for Kerelaw. She brags to neighbours that her son is 'doing wonderfully' at the school. One resident said:

'She refuses to believe he is a rapist. She says he is just a wean and didn't deserve to be locked up. She says Bell is loving every minute at Kerelaw and is being treated really well. And she tells us he won't get moved to a real prison now he's 16. He will see out his sentence in Kerelaw and finish his fifth-year studies.'

Elma's bragging has only added to the pain for Lindsay's parents. Dad Frank Armstrong said:

'It makes me sick to think Bell is enjoying himself, but it doesn't surprise me. We knew he'd get an easy life - the law has been on his side from day one. His mother is an idiot who still thinks her boy is an angel, even though he destroyed our wee lassie. She is as bad as him if she is blaming our Lindsay for her son's crime, especially when she knows he raped and killed her.

'It also made me furious when I heard his mum was getting financial help to go and visit him, and to pay for another house. That family have had everything handed to them on a plate while we struggle to keep afloat. I've been working all the hours just to survive'."

In July, 2002, two weeks after Lindsay died, Lee Don Bell was sentenced to spend four years in Kerelaw Secure Unit in Stevenston, Ayrshire.

He was released 19 months early in December, 2004.

In April, 2006, Lindsay's mother was out shopping when she spotted lee Don Bell. She stared in disbelief. Bell stared back.

The authorities had not bothered to tell her that her daughter's rapist had moved back into the area.

I have learned nothing about Lee Don Bell which makes me think that he is a recent immigrant.

I highlight this case in order to demonstrate the difference between justice and the law in Britain today.

If 500 good blokes from a "Boil 'em in Oil" type party were elected in this country, the Lee Don Bells of this world would spend the rest of their lives in the potato fields, minus their teeth and testicles.

Their mothers would be there with them.

The lovely, young girl pictured below was murdered by the unfettered brutality of a 14-year-old moron and a system of justice that cares more for thugs likes him than it does for the beauty THEY destroy.