Police want rape suspects to surrender

National

A GRADE 9 female student of Hagen Secondary School in Western Highlands was gang-raped by four suspects from a nearby village.
Western Highlands police commander, Chief Superintendent Martin Lakari told The National yesterday that the girl was held up at knife-point on Saturday at about 11am.
She was taken to the back of a classroom where she was repeatedly raped, Lakari said.
He said she was stabbed on her thighs when she tried to free herself to escape.
He said that she was held down for about 30 minutes before the suspects from the nearby Jika tribe left her unconscious and escaped.
Lakari said police arrested one suspect.
He said the identities of the other three were known and he urged them to surrender to police.
“I appeal to their leaders living near the school to show their true leadership by handing over the suspects to the police or police will conduct raid in their area and arrest them,” he said.
Lakari said that rape was a very serious offence and police would make sure that the offenders faced maximum penalty.
He said the victim was traumatised and was admitted in hospital.
“This is an act of lunatics who come out from stone age, no sense of respect for other people,” he said.
He said that these people were sick in the head.