Girl Gang-Raped On Her Way From School
Pini Bothoko | Monday May 14, 2018 14:07
The men allegedly stopped their vehicle next to the 15-year-old girl and forcefully dragged her into their car, covered her face and took her to a house where they took turns raping her. After repeatedly raping her, they allegedly took her back to the spot where they had abducted her, dumped her on the street and drove away. The girl reached home, informed her parents about the incident and they reported the matter to the police. Mogoditshane police registered a case and started investigations. Police are on the hunt for the two suspects, who succeeded in fleeing unidentified, as they had covered the victim’s face. The girl was taken to a hospital where doctors examined her and confirmed she had been raped.
“It is a heinous crime, we will do everything to bring the culprits to justice. Sadly the girl could not identify them nor the place where she was taken to because they had covered her face all along,” the Officer Commanding (OC), senior superintendent Counsel Moyo told The Monitor. He said the girl said the suspects accosted her at around four in the afternoon.
“We are pleading with members of the community who could have noticed anything suspicious that fateful afternoon to come forth and help us with any information that could help us locate the suspects,” Moyo said. Meanwhile on Saturday around midnight, Mogoditshane police received another report in Mogoditshane in which a 26-year-old woman was attacked and raped by an unknown man whilst walking home from the bar. Moyo said the complainant said that she was walking home in the company of her friends when they met the culprit who attacked them. While the others got away, he managed to drag her to a nearby bush and raped her.
“She said that the suspect threatened her with a sharp object. Investigations into the matter are ongoing to make an arrest,” he said.
He said that in yet another incident, still early Saturday morning a 36-year-old woman of Mogoditshane was also raped on her way home from the bar. Moyo said that the complainant told the police that she met the suspect with her friends at some bar. She alleged that after the bar closed the suspect volunteered to drop them at their homes.
“She said that the culprit first dropped her friend who was in the company of her boyfriend, but whilst on the way to drop her he changed his mind and demanded sex and raped her. She denied making any agreement with the culprit. She said they only met at the bar and spent some time together prior to the incident,” Moyo said. Investigations are ongoing to arrest the suspect.
While the complainant said she does not know the culprit, she said she would be able to identify him if she saw him again. Moyo said rape cases involving women who are attacked and raped at night from entertainment areas remain a concern in his policing area. He expressed worry that it appears that women have the habit of going to bars without money to buy themselves alcohol, let alone knowing how they will get home from the bar at night.
“We have observed that some women have the habit of depending on strangers for almost everything at the bar and such people will later demand sex from them in return. I am pleading with women to budget for their own entertainment and avoid depending on strangers,” Moyo said.
Meanwhile, Moyo said they were investigating another case in which two Toyota Fortuner cars were stolen from Motor Centre garage at Fairgrounds on Sunday night. He said that the incident allegedly occurred at around 11pm on Saturday and investigations are ongoing to locate the culprits and the stolen cars.