Man arrested for abduction, rape of child
A man is to appear before the Katutura Magistrate's Court today in connection with the abduction of a five-year-old girl from a pre-primary school in Windhoek last week.
Namibian police spokesperson Chief Inspector Kaunapawa Shikwambi on Friday confirmed that the man was arrested on Thursday afternoon soon after the girl had been found and returned to her worried family.
She said the man had a previous conviction of murder and rape.
The suspect is not related to the child, Shikwambi explained, but his sister is married to a member of the child's family.
The girl's family contacted the police and appealed for help on social media after they discovered she had been picked up by an unknown man from the Blink Ogies pre-primary school in Khomasdal at lunchtime on Thursday. She was found several hours later, after several search teams had been dispatched.
Child rape in Namibia has been described as an alarming crime that continues to plague Namibian children. Namibian Sun reported that in July three girls, aged 10, 13 and 16, were among the victims of five rapes reported to the Namibian police over just four days.
At the end of July, the Namibian police said they were tracing a man accused of raping his eight-year-old niece multiple times between January and July this year.
A spokesperson for the Lifeline/Childline Namibia counselling centre in 2017 told Namibian Sun “the number of cases being reported is rising and is definitely not normal. It is rather alarming.”
Moreover, experts believe the actual number of cases is higher, noting the tendency of victims and their families not to report cases to the police.
Statistics contained in a 2017 Namibian Sun article showed that between 2003 and 2012 the police had investigated more than 3 800 rapes of children and adolescents.
The reports showed that 3 656 rapes of female children and teenagers were reported between 2003 and 2012, and 207 of boys.
Overall, the statistics showed that close to 40% of rapes during that decade were of children, more than one-third of all rapes reported to the police.
JANA-MARI SMITH
Namibian police spokesperson Chief Inspector Kaunapawa Shikwambi on Friday confirmed that the man was arrested on Thursday afternoon soon after the girl had been found and returned to her worried family.
She said the man had a previous conviction of murder and rape.
The suspect is not related to the child, Shikwambi explained, but his sister is married to a member of the child's family.
The girl's family contacted the police and appealed for help on social media after they discovered she had been picked up by an unknown man from the Blink Ogies pre-primary school in Khomasdal at lunchtime on Thursday. She was found several hours later, after several search teams had been dispatched.
Child rape in Namibia has been described as an alarming crime that continues to plague Namibian children. Namibian Sun reported that in July three girls, aged 10, 13 and 16, were among the victims of five rapes reported to the Namibian police over just four days.
At the end of July, the Namibian police said they were tracing a man accused of raping his eight-year-old niece multiple times between January and July this year.
A spokesperson for the Lifeline/Childline Namibia counselling centre in 2017 told Namibian Sun “the number of cases being reported is rising and is definitely not normal. It is rather alarming.”
Moreover, experts believe the actual number of cases is higher, noting the tendency of victims and their families not to report cases to the police.
Statistics contained in a 2017 Namibian Sun article showed that between 2003 and 2012 the police had investigated more than 3 800 rapes of children and adolescents.
The reports showed that 3 656 rapes of female children and teenagers were reported between 2003 and 2012, and 207 of boys.
Overall, the statistics showed that close to 40% of rapes during that decade were of children, more than one-third of all rapes reported to the police.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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