PORT ELIZABETH - VIGILANTE MOB ALMOST MURDER 2 MEN SUSPECTED OF RAPING 10 YEAR OLD GIRL

Police prevented the vigilante murders of two males who were suspected of the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ikamvelihle.

This followed after the girl was walking home from school at 15:30. It is alleged that the two suspects forced the girl into their shack in Nomakanjane Village, Ikamvelihle where she was then raped by them.

At about 18:00 the two suspects let the girl go free and fled from their shack. By 19:00 a group of about 200 angry residents mobilised and started searching for the two suspects. They set the suspects shack alight and it was completely destroyed.

SAPS were alerted of the rape and the resulting search by community of the two suspects, and also joined in the search. A race against time in finding the two males before the community does, ended when the first 21-year-old suspect was found by police.

He was found hiding and unharmed in Koliti Street at about 23:45. By 00:30 police also found the badly assaulted second 27-year-old suspect in the Motherwell cemetery. The community members severely assaulted him and they were moments away of murdering him and setting him alight, but they fled the scene when they saw the approaching lights of the police.

The rape case is being investigated by the Motherwell Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit. The 21-year-old suspect was arrested and detained for the rape, while the second suspect is being treated for the serious wounds he sustained in the attack. Name of hospital withheld for security reasons. He will be formally arrested once he is in a condition to be detained and taken to court.

General Rabie further stated that the community needs to take SAPS serious that it will not be tolerated that such vigilante murders takes place and that SAPS will arrest and institute murder prosecution against such persons. Vigilante persons needs to respect the Laws of our country.  "The shack of the two rape suspects where the alleged rape took place, was an official crime scene. When vigilante persons destroyed it by burning it down, vital evidence that could link the suspects with the rape were destroyed in the process. SAPS will investigate and pursue this matter with urgency and perpetrators are promised to face serious criminal charges for interfering with police crime scenes."