July 10 2013 at 07:45am
By KUTLWANO OLIFANT
T
A group of
protesters shout insults at passing police vehicles outside the Vereeniging
Magistrates Court as a police officer appeared for allegedly raping a
13-year-old girl from Orange Farm. Photo: Timothy Bernard
Johannesburg - A police constable accused of raping
a 13-year-old girl in Daleside, in the Vaal, was caught with his pants down –
literally.
Patrolling policemen caught the man in the act, naked and allegedly
raping the child.
This emerged in the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday when a
senior Independent Police Investigative Directorate investigating officer,
Takalani Mophosho, gave evidence against the officer’s release on bail.
On the day of the incident, the girl was walking home with her male
cousin, and as they walked past a park, an officer who had been in a private
parked car nearby walked towards them. He allegedly informed them he was a
police officer, then pepper-sprayed them.
The children ran in different directions. The victim fell and the
accused is alleged to have then grabbed the girl, forced her into his vehicle
and driven from Orange Farm to Kliprivier, where he parked under a tree and
raped her.
Mophosho testified that the car was parked at the scene from 6pm till
9pm, when the constable was apprehended by some of his colleagues. She said the
child was allegedly raped three or four times.
“When the victim saw the police, she started screaming for help. The
accused told her not to scream because she would be arrested,” said Mophosho.
As details of the alleged rape unfolded in the packed courtroom, the
victim’s family, seated just two benches behind the accused, began crying.
The accused, Innocent Khulekani Mathenjwa, pleaded not guilty, and
through an affidavit read out by his lawyer, asked to be released on bail as he
was the breadwinner for his mother and siblings.
But Mophosho testified that the officer, who is stationed at Ennerdale
police station, was in fact suspended without pay.
Mathenjwa had also allegedly sent someone to the girl’s home to
negotiate with the family to have charges against him withdrawn, said Mophosho.
Magistrate Leon Ferreira denied the bail application
Mathenjwa’s case was postponed to later this month.
kutlwano.olifant@inl.co.za
The Star
Brackets in title mine
