‘Police have the wrong men’

‘Police have the wrong men’
October 7 2011 at 09:32am
By Tania Broughton


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Girl dragged from beach and gang-raped
Two men, detained under suspicion that they raped a 16-year-old Pretoria schoolgirl on the beach near Prince’s Grant golf estate this week, were not the right men, she told police on Thursday.

But while police Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge insisted they had been charged and would appear in court this morning, the teenager’s father told The Mercury last night of his frustration at what he believes is the lack of proper investigation of the crime.

“I don’t want to make a big fuss in the media, but it feels like I am telling them what they need to do and reminding them of what my daughter has said.”

The two men were arrested on Wednesday by local traffic police and private security officers who are assisting in the hunt for the three-member gang who attacked the teenager and her boyfriend – who The Mercury learnt is 21, and not 18 as reported yesterday – as they walked on the deserted beach, north of the estate, at lunchtime on Tuesday.

They stabbed her boyfriend in the leg and tied him up with a towel before dragging the petite teenager along the beach and then into bushes, where she was raped.

The father – who cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity – said he, his daughter and her friend had gone on their own accord on Wednesday with Dylan Meyrick, from IPSS (the golf estate’s security company) to look for the crime scene in the bushes.

“We have had massive rainfalls and the police had not been there for how many days. I don’t know what the rain will do with the evidence. They (the police) did not seem interested in going there… my daughter had to walk all the way that they (the rapists) took her and eventually we got there. And there was evidence. We phoned them (the police) from there and only then did they come out,” he said.

The father said they had gone for an ID parade on Thursday but had been forced to wait three hours because there was no photographer to take the required pictures.

“It was so traumatic. I don’t want to put my kid through this each time they arrest somebody if they are not sure that it is the right people.”

He said his family was to have left for home today, but had decided to stay until Sunday to help the police.

After being raped by the knife-wielding men, the teenager fled inland and was helped by two local teenagers who took her to their father, Michael Gumede.

Gumede said he had phoned the police station three times to report that he had a rape victim with him, but the person who answered the phone had not even taken down his address.

Asked about this, Mdunge lashed out, saying those who were “creating a hullabaloo” around the case, and “making falsified statements in a sensitive case to raise public alarm would be charged”.

He declined to discuss the outcome of the ID parade and said the suspects had been charged and would appear in court this morning. He said only then would a decision be made on whether the charges would be withdrawn.

“Our detectives have worked tirelessly; they have had no sleep… this hullabaloo is unethical and not in the interests of the victim. This is a very sensitive case.”

He said the case docket showed that there had been an “adequate and timeous response”.

“The investigation is following the right direction,” said Mdunge. The Mercury, page 1