COMMENT

"Cops let my rapist get away!" - Daily Sun

The front page and lead story of SA's largest daily newspaper, May 20 2014

Daily Sun (May 20 2014) - THIS young woman was determined that her rapists would pay for their crime. Within days she hunted them down, and called the investigating officer. BUT THE EVIL PAIR ESCAPED AFTER THE COP ALLEGEDLY REFUSED TO HELP!

She told the People's Paper she vowed to get justice after a taxi driver and his friend raped her on her way to work on Wednesday. Years ago, a thug who raped her when she was only 12 escaped justice. She wasn't going to let that happen again!

The woman said her nightmare began when she set off for work from Freedom Park, south of Joburg. She had no reason to fear with eight other passengers in the silver-grey Quantum taxi. "People were getting off until I was the only one left with the taxi driver and his friend," she said.

Just after they passed a bridge in Booysens, the driver said he wanted to pee. "When he got back, he and his friend pinned me down and raped me," she cried. "Afterwards they pushed me out of the taxi and threw my clothes out the window."

The young woman said she got dressed on the roadside. "I forced myself to walk to my workplace. I was in tears." She said she called her mum and they reported the crime at Joburg Central Police Station. "I didn't want these men to walk away after what they did to me," she said.

The woman said she and her family went to the Southgate taxi rank to find the taxi but found the taxi association unhelpful. But she kept going back to the rank to look for the men. And on Sunday afternoon she made a breakthrough.

A taxi driver gave her the taxi's registration number. "I went back to the place where I got the taxi, and I saw a grey Quantum approaching," she said. "That's when I called community members," she said.

They helped her to corner the two men, and she called the investigating officer. But he refused to help, she said.

"He told me he's not the only one who can arrest the men. Any policeman could do it!"

So she said she called the Eldorado Park police, and they promised to come. But about an hour later there was still no sign of those cops, and the two men ran away.

"Had the police come, my rapists would be behind bars now," she said. "Instead they are still walking free!"

The woman, who can't be named, said the man who raped her when she was a child was also never convicted. He was found dead in a police cell on the day his case was to start!

) Joburg Central police spokesman Captain Sibongile Mnguni said a rape case was opened and police were investigating the allegation that an investigating officer refused to help.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

 

The Daily Sun is South Africa's largest daily newspaper with an average circulation of 297,614 (Audit Bureau of Circulations 4th Quarter 2013) and a readership of 5.7m (as per AMPS 2012ab). Its Facebook page can be accessed here. It can be followed on Twitter here. To find about advertising on the Daily Sun click here.

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