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Home / Alleged police inaction over rape breaks father’s heart
Alleged police inaction over rape breaks father’s heart
2016-11-18Staff Report 2 Windhoek The father of a seven-year-old girl who was raped in August is a disappointed man because, he says, the Tsandi police had consistently failed to arrest the suspect. The suspect and the victim lived in the same homestead. The father who lives in Windhoek wanted the suspect arrested as it pained him knowing the perpetrator, reportedly 18 years old, was a free person and still attended school almost three months after having committed the crime. According to the father, the incident happened on August 29, and was registered with the police. The father said he has the doctor’s full report showing all the damage his daughter suffered on her private parts. The minor’s father, whose name is withheld to protect the minor, expressed frustration at the Tsandi police as they allegedly made no effort to go to the residence to get the suspect for questioning, despite a police docket indicating the minor was raped. The father said the rapist who is a cousin to the minor lived in the same homestead at Ondongwadhiya, which is 5km out of Tsandi. The minor’s mother opened the case while she was at Tsandi but recently moved to Windhoek after getting a job in the city. She left her daughter in the north but the father feared that police failure to arrest the perpetrator would allow him to repeat the offence. “He disturbed my little girl’s mind. Just recently she has been refusing to attend school,” said the father. He added that he would be visiting the north during December and did not think it would end well if he bumped into the suspect. “This pains me as a father seeing him walking freely knowing that he raped my daughter. I went to the ministry of gender and gave them the story. They tried contacting Tsandi charge office but they didn’t manage because the sergeant dealing with the case seemed to be unavailable,” lamented the frustrated and heartbroken father. But after queries by New Era to the police on Tuesday, police spokesman Slogan Matheus said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday. “We were looking for him but he had fled. We were given leads by informants which led to his arrest,” he explained. Matheus said it is not correct for the concerned person to allege that nothing was done in the case. He said the father was not the complainant. “But l should admit that the shortcoming from our part could be that we did not yet give the complainant (female, 29 years old) in the case the progress report on how far our investigations had progressed. However, arrangements are already made for the investigator to go see the complainant in this case at their village, and to give a progress report on the matter.” He added that the police obtained five witness statements and visited the scene to compile a photo plan. 2016-11-18Staff Report 2
