The second suspect in the rape of a four-year-old girl, who was allegedly attacked by her own uncle and left for dead in a drain, has been arrested.
Desmond October was nabbed by police on Monday after an angry mob caught him and beat him, leaving him with a broken arm and stitches to his head.
People had apparently caught him breaking into a house in New Woodlands, and someone then recognised him as the person of interest wanted for the sexual assault of the little girl.
The child’s mother identified the two suspects at the Mitchells Plain Day Hospital on the day of the
incident.
MANG: Victim's uncle. Pictures: supplied
October walked into the dock with his right arm in a cast and stitches visible on his head.
He was asked whether he would be appointing a private attorney or Legal Aid, but indicated he would be representing himself.
The State said they would be opposing his bail application, set for 4 December.
Kaamillah Ismail, the deputy chairperson of the Lentegeur Community Policing Forum and co-ordinator of the Missing
Persons Unit, says October lived in the bush and was a known skelm.
“They had chased after him for a housebreaking and he had jumped a fence,” she says.
“One person identified him as being the person who was involved in the child’s case.
“The man was arrested after the community took the law into their own hands.”
She slammed the Family Violence and Sexual Offences Unit for not apprehending the man sooner as the child mentioned him in her statement.
FURY: Kaamillah Ismail of the CPF. Picture: Jack Lestrade
The child’s mother looked relieved to see October in the dock.
The mom previously slammed police for not questioning October.
“Now I can sleep a bit better,” she said yesterday.
The mother previously said she didn’t grow up with her brother and only befriended him in January when he moved from Joburg.
She said he soon became part of the family, and would take her daughter to creche.
In February, the child who was four at the time, told her mother and police her uncle raped her and then shoved her in a drain, stuffing her mouth with flowers to keep her quiet.
She said before that, her uncle and October would take her into bushes and rape her.
The uncle, 29, was previously granted R500 bail but a warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court last week.
Kaamillah Ismail, the deputy chairperson of the Lentegeur Community Policing Forum.