Police officers held on rape charges

Independent Newspapers

Cape Town -

A policeman is under arrest on suspicion of raping a woman in a police station trauma room when she tried to lodge a domestic violence complaint, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) says.

A second policeman, a 31-year-old constable, has appeared in the Dealesville Magistrate’s Court after allegedly raping a woman in Boshof, Free State.

Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said on Thursday night that, in the first case, a constable, 52, allegedly raped the woman, 49, at the Herbertsdale satellite police station on February 15.

The constable, based at KwaNonqaba police station near Mossel Bay, was taken into custody on Wednesday.

“After he listened to her complaint, he locked the front door of the station and took the victim by force to the trauma room, where he pulled her pants down and raped her,” Dlamini said.

The woman reported the rape at the same station the next day and was told officers would come to her house.

When they did not arrive she reported the rape to the local councillor.

The directorate was told of the incident on Tuesday, and the constable was arrested the next day.

He is to appear in the Mossel Bay Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Dlamini said that in the second incident, on February 17, a 21-year-old woman from Warrenton in the Northern Cape and her friends were returning from a tavern when she asked the constable if he could give them a lift.

After he had dropped off her friends he took her to an unfamiliar road and told her they were going to the Free State. She asked him to stop so she could relieve herself. As she was getting dressed, he allegedly tried to grab her.

He then allegedly raped her without a condom and ordered her to get into the vehicle. When the woman refused, he assaulted her and threatened to kill her.

Dlamini said the woman reported the rape to a police station. The constable fled to Potchefstroom, but later handed himself in at the Boshof police station. He would apply for bail on Monday, Dlamini added.

The cabinet’s inter-ministerial committee on violence against women and children has warned police and social workers to treat abuse and rape cases seriously.

Cape Times