PE woman escapes after alleged gang-rape, beating

A Port Elizabeth woman managed to escape after allegedly being gang-raped, beaten and held captive for several hours in a garden flat in Hillside near the Cleary Park Shopping Centre early on Friday  morning.

Police and residents raided the house at about 8.30am after the 30-year-old woman managed to flee across the road and alert workers at the nearby IPTS bus depot in Stanford Road.

Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said a passing police vehicle had then been waved down by residents.

“The woman claims to have been walking in Central at about 1am when she saw a cab driver she knew. He offered to give her a lift to a nearby bar she was walking to.

“There were two men inside the car also catching a lift,” she said.

“At the bar they all had drinks and then the two men offered to take her to another bar in the Gelvandale area. They all left and then went to the house where she was allegedly raped by the three men and assaulted.”

Naidu said while police were searching the house, the residents had found one of the men allegedly involved.

“He was caught by the community and handed over to the police.”

A woman who claims to be the owner of the house and declined to be named, said residents had scaled the wall to find the men.

“I was hanging up the washing when all of a sudden people started climbing over my back wall. They were carrying rocks and stones, throwing them at me.

“I was panicked and started shouting at them as I did not know what was happening,” she said.

“Some of the residents then explained to me that a girl ran across the road claiming to have been held captive at the flat. I told them that I live in the main house and had no clue what they were talking about.”

Within minutes, people arrived and started searching the house and flatlet.

“They came inside and I told them they can search everywhere. They even went into the roof. There is nothing here. My two sons and a Somali guy are tenants in the back flat. None of them was there but the police said that they took one person,” she said.

“I have no clue what is happening. The police then left and said that they were looking for the other two, who I presume are my sons.

She said that she spent all day at the premises and most of the time was inside the main house.

“I have never heard someone screaming or even a fight, so I do not understand why they saying this woman was being held there,” she said.

The two men are still at large and believed to be on the run.

The one arrested will appear in the Port Elizabeth magistrate’s court on Monday.