TWO Somerset teenagers have been remanded into youth detention after facing multiple sex offence charges, including rape, some of which allegedly occurred in West Somerset.

The youngsters, aged 16 and 17 years, appeared before magistrates in Taunton on Wednesday (September 2).

They will be kept in custody until a Taunton Crown Court hearing listed for September 25.

The 17-year-old, from Bridgwater, faced three counts of rape of a girl aged under 16 years.

He was also accused of non-fatal strangulation and assault causing actual bodily harm, both of which were said to have happened in Minehead on May 29.

The 16-year-old, from Highbridge, was charged with three counts of rape of a girl aged under 16 years, one of raping a woman aged 16 or older, one of non-fatal strangulation, and one of assault causing bodily harm.

The charges related to a vulnerable young woman and two teenage girls aged under 16.

Legally, neither boy can be named due to their age.

Avon and Somerset Police said both the teenagers’ self-defined ethnicity was white British.