Cape Town - The celebration of passing Grade 9 was cruelly cut short for a 15-year-old Strand Secondary pupil after she was raped - allegedly over the weekend.
The incident happened at about 3am on Sunday at the victim’s home in Allan Boesak Village, Strand.
The traumatised pupil didn’t talk to her mother about the ordeal immediately and only later in the morning told her she was anally raped.
The 23-year-old suspect, known to the family, was arrested and briefly appeared in court on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old mother said: “I’m shattered at what happened to my child. In some way I blame myself for what happened to her.
“I just left her alone for about an hour when I visited my cousin.
“If I’d stayed at home the rape would not have happened. The sad part is that the suspect is known to us. He was in and out of our house.”
The mother returned home just before 3am and as she walked towards her lounge window heard her daughter shouting three times “No!”
She rushed to unlock the front door and saw the suspect through the curtains leaving her daughter’s room.
“Once inside, I asked him what he was doing in my house at that hour and how did he get in. He told me he got in by the back door and I told him he was lying because I locked all the doors when I left,” she said.
According to the mother, the suspect said he heard her daughter vomiting and came into the house through the back door to help her.
It was only later that morning when her daughter woke up that she told her mother her anus was sore.
The pupil was taken to the police and hospital who confirmed she was raped. Police spokesperson FC van Wyk confirmed a 23-year-old man was arrested in connection with rape.
@TheCapeArgus