A six-year-old girl has undergone a successful surgery in South Africa having been defiled by a neighbour.
The little girl had to battle for her life after going through the ordeal by a 26-year-old neighbour in Mamelodi, part of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.
The incident left the victim hospitalized with extensive damage to her genital area, according to News24.
Both mother and daughter are going through counseling sessions, stated Themba Masango, an official of lobby group Not in My Name.
Masango narrated to News24 that the accused, who has a three-month-old daughter, allegedly planned to give the victim a present on that fateful day, but the mother declined the offer.
“Hours later, he was seen by other community members carrying the child on his shoulder and they suspected nothing. The mother contends that, when she didn’t see her child, she assumed that she was playing with her other neighbour’s daughter,” Not In My Name’s Mo Senne told the news outlet.
“Much to her dismay, her child walked in holding treats and when asked, in a state of confusion, she told her mother that the neighbour inserted something inside of her, then gave her the treats afterwards.
“Horror befell! Her mother inspected the child and found a panty full of blood. The father stated that, when the police came to arrest the perpetrator, they removed sheets which also had blood stains.”
The lobby group said the accused allegedly threatened to kill the child in a move to cow her from revealing what happed.
Police spokesperson Captain Johannes Maheso has confirmed the case, adding investigations are ongoing.
According to Optimus Study South Africa, “A child may, for instance, experience sexual touching by an uncle at the age of 5, sexual harassment by peers at the age of 12, being made to engage in sexual touching with a boyfriend at the age of 15, and being forced to have sex with someone older than her at the age of 17. We therefore asked young people about how many times certain acts of sexual abuse happened during the course of their lifetime, and in the past year: in 40% of cases it occurred more than once. It is worth noting that 1 in 10 children who had experienced sexual abuse by a known adult had this experience four or more times, with approximately 30% indicating that this occurred between two and three times.”
