Victims slam cops' response to their attacks
February 6 2007 at 11:42am
AF
Victim of attack: Samantha-Kelly Duddingtonseem with her
boyfriend Justin, has blamed the police for failing to do their job. Photo:
Daily News
By Miranda Andrew
Two young Durban women - daughters of well-known
local political personalities - have accused the police of failing to follow
proper procedures after two separate attacks recently.
In the first case, Samantha-Kelly Duddington,
daughter of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) secretary SeijaDuddington, was beaten,
strangled with her own necklace and kicked by a homeless man who regularly
wanders along Moore Road.
Duddington had been walking along Moore Grove,
which is just off Moore Road, at around midday and was on her way to the
Glenwood Library when the man grabbed her.
"He grabbed my throat and threw me into
someone's open garage. He started kicking me and tried to strangle me with my
necklace," Duddington recalled.
"He took my handbag that had my house keys
inside and said he was going to come back and kill me because he knew where I
lived," the terrified 19-year-old said.
The matter was reported to the Umbilo Police who
responded to the scene, but Duddington and her boyfriend Justin Bradfield, who
is a British-trained special constable but who has been living in South Africa
for the past year, said not much was done.
Bradfield said the fact that Duddington had been
strangled and her life threatened made this a serious crime.
"They should have sealed off the crime scene
and sent an investigator to check for DNA articles," Bradfield said.
"It's a standard procedure at police stations
across the globe. Samantha's clothes - which had her attacker's handprints and
hair-strands on it - should have been bagged as evidence,"said Bradfield.
He said in this way if the perpetrator is caught
later, his DNA would be matched against the DNA on her clothes and this would
form part of the evidence in court.
"They did not even put out a general
description of the attacker over their radio control so that someone with this
description could be picked up," he added.
Duddington said over the past week she and
Bradfield had gathered their own evidence and have put together a file on her
attacker - who frequents a soup kitchen at a church in the area.
"We have his name, details, the places he
frequents, just about everything," she said.
"But still police have not done anything."
Duddington's mother, Seija said: "Crime has
reached unacceptable proportions in Durban. I speak for most South Africans
when I say that we have had enough."
Meanwhile, her friend IlisaCoen, daughter of
Democratic Alliance councillor, AvrilleCoen, was also a victim of crime at a
nearby spot in Davenport, Glenwood.
Two weeks ago, Ilisa was on Davenport Road when she
as attacked from behind.
"When he caught my arm, I hit him with my bag,
but was pushed on to the ground. The man had a knife," said Ilisa.
Her mother Avrille said she had to call in a favour
from one of her "high-up contacts" just to have Umbilo Police respond
to the scene.
Provincial police spokesperson, Superintendent
MuziMngomezulu said they viewed the allegations in both cases in a serious
light and agreed that police procedure had not been followed properly.
"KZN Police Commissioner Hamilton Ngidi will
also be made aware of the problem so that the matter can be addressed,"
Mngomezulu said.
