Gran turns teen in after horrific rape

2012-04-26 08:06

Nothando Ndlovu, The Witness

Durban - A Gingindlovu grandmother called the police to arrest her teenage grandson after he was fingered for the rape of an 8-year-old girl whose left eye was gouged out in the brutal attack.

The 15-year-old boy was accused on Monday of raping another girl and his grandmother reprimanded him.

But when news filtered through of what he had allegedly done to the 8-year-old girl on the same day, she decided to leave it to a higher authority.

'Horrified'

“We did not reprimand him the second time because we feared he would run away like he did when the first family came to our house,” the grandmother told The Witness.

She cannot be named to protect the identity of the child suspect.

“We called the police and he was arrested. He was not naughty at home; he was a normal child.

“We spoke to the girl’s family and I was there when she was taken to hospital. We are horrified by this incident.”

The families know each other, as they attend the same church, and their children are at the same school.

The victim’s grandmother also described the suspect as a “normal” child.

The 15-year-old appeared in the local magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

Evil spirits blamed

His grandmother blamed evil spirits for the change in her grandson.

During the Easter weekend, the 15-year-old had experienced visions of a man commanding him to commit evil deeds, she said.

“We prayed for him at the time that he would no longer dream of this evil man. I believe evil spirits led him to do what he did,” she said.

Police spokesperson Thulani Zwane said the girl was dragged into a sugarcane field on her way home from school in the Mvutshini area of Gingindlovu, near Eshowe, on Monday.

Her attacker also tried to gouge out her right eye.

Unable to walk, the girl dragged herself home, he said.

Her grandmother, already concerned about her being late from school, was horrified to see the child bleeding, with her eyeball hanging from its socket.

Zwane added: “The suspect had bitten her on the neck, raped her and left her lying helplessly on the ground.”

The child was rushed to a clinic and then transferred to Ngwelezane Hospital, near Empangeni. She was in a serious but stable condition on Wednesday.

“”My grandchild is still traumatised by the incident,” the girl’s grandmother said.

“She wants me close to her so I am with her at the hospital. She has been in theatre today and her eye has been removed.”

The mother of the suspect lives in Durban, but has returned home.

The case has been postponed to May 25.

Child sexual abuse cases

A staggering 3 000 cases of sexual abuse of children are being dealt with by Childline in KwaZulu-Natal.

Said Linda Naidoo, director of Childline KZN: “This province is leading nationally when it comes to the sexual abuse of children and we need to do something about this as we don’t have resources. We need to be vigilant and protect our children as they are vulnerable.”

Referring to the latest attack, Naidoo said: “A child being exposed to extreme violence can make him angry and he may want to take revenge. The brutality and gouging the eyes of the victim out show he also aggressively disregarded the victim’s rights when attacking her. It may be because he wanted to hide the truth about the rape.”

She said the calls to Lifeline about child abuse show that a lot needs to be done. She urged the public to report cases so that they can be investigated.

Pietermaritzburg psychologist Clive Willows said the level of violence displayed in the rape suggested a deep-seated pathology and a complete disregard for another person’s feelings. “Rape is terrible, but on a continuum of violence, this is horrific.”

- The Witness