East London police are investigating the alleged rape of four boys by a 14-year-old neighbour. The alleged incident took place last Fridayalong the banks of a stream in dense bush near Cambridge location.
This is the second such incident reported to police in two weeks involving young boys.
Last month the Daily Dispatch reported that an East London primary school pupil of about 12 years allegedly sodomised seven little boys and a girl either in bushes near the school or in the Grade 3 classroom.
The boy was taken to a place of safety while police investigate the matter.
In the latest incident, the victims, who live in an informal settlement in Cambridge, are aged between seven and nine. According to their parents, the four friends were playing in a neighbour’s yard.
“I was watching them play and I could hear their voices but moments later they went quiet. At the time I thought they went to one of the friend’s houses,” said one mother. She said it was only when the other parents came looking for their children that she realised something must be wrong.
“We asked around and we were told that they were seen walking with the alleged rapist, heading towards the bushes.”
One of the parents then sent a male relative to go and look for them.
“My brother went looking for them and found them walking from the river crying,” she said, adding they had told him they had been raped by the teenage boy.
The parents say the accused lives in the same informal settlement.
“When we approached the alleged rapist he ran away. We went to his house and when we told the father what had happened he just gave us a blank stare,” said the parents.
The young victims were yesterday taken to the Thuthuzela Care Centre at Cecilia Makhiwane in Mdantsane for medical examinations.
The parents said that while at the centre the children claimed it had not been the first time the 14-year-old had raped them.
“My nine-year-old claimed that this has happened before at the river and at nearby public toilets.”
The boys said the 14-year-old had asked them to go with him into the bushes to fetch his handmade go-cart.
Accompanied by an investigating officer and parents, the four boys showed police where the alleged incident had taken place.
The mothers of the boys started sobbing.
“We did not even know that this place even existed,” one said.
It is alleged the older boy had ordered the younger children to pull down their pants before raping them one by one.
He allegedly warned the children that if they told anyone he would kill them and dump their bodies in the river.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Nkosiko Mzuku confirmed that a case of rape had been opened at the Cambridge police station.
“The police are investigating the case. No arrests have been made yet,” said Mzuku.
The mother of the alleged rapist said her son had dropped out of school in Grade 6 this year.
“The law must just take its course. What needs to happen must happen,” she said. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
Teen accused of raping four children
This is the second such incident reported to police in two weeks involving young boys.
Last month the Daily Dispatch reported that an East London primary school pupil of about 12 years allegedly sodomised seven little boys and a girl either in bushes near the school or in the Grade 3 classroom.
The boy was taken to a place of safety while police investigate the matter.
In the latest incident, the victims, who live in an informal settlement in Cambridge, are aged between seven and nine. According to their parents, the four friends were playing in a neighbour’s yard.
“I was watching them play and I could hear their voices but moments later they went quiet. At the time I thought they went to one of the friend’s houses,” said one mother. She said it was only when the other parents came looking for their children that she realised something must be wrong.
“We asked around and we were told that they were seen walking with the alleged rapist, heading towards the bushes.”
One of the parents then sent a male relative to go and look for them.
“My brother went looking for them and found them walking from the river crying,” she said, adding they had told him they had been raped by the teenage boy.
The parents say the accused lives in the same informal settlement.
“When we approached the alleged rapist he ran away. We went to his house and when we told the father what had happened he just gave us a blank stare,” said the parents.
The young victims were yesterday taken to the Thuthuzela Care Centre at Cecilia Makhiwane in Mdantsane for medical examinations.
The parents said that while at the centre the children claimed it had not been the first time the 14-year-old had raped them.
“My nine-year-old claimed that this has happened before at the river and at nearby public toilets.”
The boys said the 14-year-old had asked them to go with him into the bushes to fetch his handmade go-cart.
Accompanied by an investigating officer and parents, the four boys showed police where the alleged incident had taken place.
The mothers of the boys started sobbing.
“We did not even know that this place even existed,” one said.
It is alleged the older boy had ordered the younger children to pull down their pants before raping them one by one.
He allegedly warned the children that if they told anyone he would kill them and dump their bodies in the river.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Nkosiko Mzuku confirmed that a case of rape had been opened at the Cambridge police station.
“The police are investigating the case. No arrests have been made yet,” said Mzuku.
The mother of the alleged rapist said her son had dropped out of school in Grade 6 this year.
“The law must just take its course. What needs to happen must happen,” she said. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
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