Hospital rape: DA wants probe
2005-02-08 13:54
Pretoria - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for a thorough investigation into why security at Pretoria's Academic Hospital failed to prevent the alleged rape and subsequent death of a 65-year-old patient.
"It appears that even hospitals are not safe from murderous thugs," said DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom.
"There must be a thorough investigation of the circumstances and why security was not sufficient to prevent this atrocious act."
Police said a post-mortem to establish the cause of her death was scheduled to take place on Tuesday.
The patient had been recovering from an operation for stomach cancer at the time of the attack at 04:00 on Monday.
A 30-year-old Mozambican man has been arrested and is scheduled to appear in the Pretoria magistrate's court on Wednesday.
The woman was attacked as she slept in an otherwise empty ward on the fourth floor, said police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane.
It appears the man simply wandered into the woman's ward and attacked her.
Two nurses doing rounds at he time heard the woman's screams and rushed to see what was wrong. Not expecting anyone in the ward at that time of the morning, they too yelled upon running into the alleged rapist, said Morokane.
The commotion roused a security guard, who arrested the fleeing man, he said.
A hospital doctor called to the scene confirmed that the woman had been raped.
- SAPA