Cops in rape ‘cover-up’ shock
By Sam Mkokeli
Source: The Herald Online
TWO policemen in Uitenhage allegedly threatened to kill a 12-year-old rape victim in a bid to silence her and protect the rapist, believed to be their friend.
But the girl broke down and finally told her family, who laid a complaint. Now police are investigating both the rape and the alleged cover-up.
The traumatised child said in an interview yesterday that the policemen warned her they would “hire men to kill me”.
The girl, who cannot be named, was raped at 6pm last Wednesday on her way from church in Kwanobuhle. She was accompanied by her cousin, also 12, when a 30-year-old man, whom they knew, approached them.
He told the cousin to go home and said he would take the girl to karate lessons.
But the man took her to his house in Kwanobuhle where she was raped.
Her mother, who also cannot be named, became suspicious when her daughter had not returned by 8pm.
She called the cousin who told her that the girl had been taken by the man to karate lessons. The mother called the police and reported her daughter missing.
Two constables, whose names are known to the Herald, allegedly went to the suspect’s house where they found the girl in his bedroom. She was fully clothed, but the bedroom was in disarray, showing signs of a struggle.
The girl said she told the two officers she had been raped, but they seemed to be friends of the suspect.
The police called him outside and talked to him.
“They then came to me and said ‘let’s go home.’
“On the way they told me I must not tell my mom that I have been raped or else they will hire people to come and kill me. I was terrified,” said the girl.
Although she was too scared to report the rape to her parents, her mother insisted on a medical examination.
A doctor at Uitenhage Provincial Hospital confirmed the girl had been raped. She only admitted after two days to having been raped.
Uitenhage police spokesman Michelle Kleinhans said yesterday a departmental investigation was under way.
“A rape case is being investigated by the child protection unit and there’s also a departmental investigation regarding the allegations about the conduct of the two police officers,” said Mrs Kleinhans.
Detective Inspector Grant Measures said he was investigating the child rape and that the conduct of the two police officers had to be investigated by the general police, not the child protection unit.
The girl’s mother said she would take her to a psychologist for counselling since she was not coping emotionally.
She praised Insp Measures for his “professional conduct”.
“He was really helpful.
“If it was not for him, I would have given up hope on the police at large.”
