Girl 'badly injured' after rape
2008-03-11 12:45
Siphiwe Nyathi & Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane
Acornhoek - A 62-year-old man has been charged with raping an 11-year-old girl while her grandmother was attending a prayer meeting at church.
The girl, whose parents are dead, was raped on Wednesday last week.
She was hospitalised on Thursday when her teachers at Mapateletse primary school in Hebron village near Acornhoek in Mpumalanga, noticed she was keeping to herself and walking with difficulty.
"She was also bleeding profusely and being teased by other children," said Acornhoek police spokesperson, Inspector Joseph Mogakane.
He said the teachers asked the girl what was wrong, but she did not say a word.
They then called a woman who lives next door to the girl.
The girl told the woman that an elderly man who lived on the other side of her grandmother's house had raped her when her grandmother had gone to a prayer meeting.
The girl was taken to a local clinic and then transferred to Tintswalo hospital where she was admitted because she had been badly injured during the rape.
The man was arrested and appeared in the Acornhoek Magistrate's Court on Monday. He was not asked to plead to rape and was remanded in custody until March 18.
- African Eye