Police arrest stepfather

MANUS police have arrested a 43-year-old man for alleged sexual abuse of his three step daughters since 2013.
The arrest comes within 24 hours after a 22-year-old university student posted her plight on Facebook appealing for help to stop the abuses inflicted by her stepfather on her and her two sisters.
The post went viral and attracted the attention of Police Minister Bryan Kramer who asked Police Commissioner David Manning to act immediately.
Manus commander Chief Insp David Yapu said family and sexual violence police investigated the student’s complaint and picked up the stepfather who is scheduled to appear in the Lorengau district court on Wednesday.
He added that police brought the girls and their mother to the station where they could lodge a formal complaint.
According to the student’s posting, the girls and their mother had been suffering both verbal and physical, including sexual abuse for six years by the man.
The third year Bachelor of Business Management undergraduate posted her ordeal and plea on Facebook on Dec 31 that went viral yesterday.
She posted again saying: “I am amazed by the tremendous support and help I have received. I can now breathe a little more easy now that my stepfather has been arrested and held behind bars.”
When the university undergraduate told The National: “Knowing well that there would be a lot of critics, I just went ahead and shared our story and appealed for help because I just wanted it to stop … to protect my younger sisters. After reading many stories about social issues being shared on social media, and reading about the positive feedback, I decided to also share my story.
“After a while, my post just went viral and was shared by so many people, I was actually scared, and I logged out for hours trying to breath.”
“And then things happened so fast, there were so many people willing to help us.
“We managed to lodge a police report against him and he has finally been arrested. I feel a little bit bad about the whole thing but we had forgiven him many times. He just could not change and now we want it stopped for good.”
“This is a new year and my family and I need to be free from all these abuse,” she said, thanking everyone who reached out to her and offered their help, support and words of encouragement.