A colleague’s life recently crumbled around her when East London police asked her 15-year old daughter to point out six men accused of attempted rape from an identity parade.
A colleague’s life recently crumbled around her when East London police asked her 15-year old daughter to point out six men accused of attempted rape from an identity parade.
The colleague (who’s unnamed to protect the minor’s privacy) went to East London after her daughter escaped from a kombi full of men with rape on their minds.
The little girl boarded the kombi thinking it was a taxi, whereupon six men jumped on her, grabbed her phone and cash, and then attempted to rape her.
Her body is all bruised, but thankfully, their evil plan backfi red when the kombi overturned and one of her assailants even broke his back.
The law has since unleashed its own kibosh on her. According to the mother, when the pair returned to the scene of crime, East London cops asked the young woman to identify her tormentors from a 20-man identity parade.
“She was standing a few feet from these men,” the mother said, “and just broke down and started screaming.”
Maybe some of have watched too many movies and/or have more common sense than we need. But we’d like to assume that, like on fi lm, when a group of men stand in a row against a wall, a witness should be in another room and look at them through a two-way mirror.
The identity parade has all your suspects plus others who have nothing to do with the alleged crime. If the victim had actually had a good look, she’d ordinarily point out that person.
She wouldn’t have to confront her alleged assailant until they’re in court, during which time the police would probably have DNA, knife marks, and maybe even a confession.
Now imagine having to stand in front of a row of men, some of whom are hardened criminals, and one by one, looking them up and down to decide whether you remember them.
Imagine them looking back at you too, and taking in all your details. It’s scary for anyone not named Mike Tyson. Now imagine it’s a 15-year old girl!
Is it so hard to imagine that the alleged rapists might kill her- as the death of a witness almost always kills the case too? And what if not all the accused have been apprehended? Same difference?
Apparently, the East London cop working on this particular case told the victim and her mom that she was not the fi rst person who had had to pick people from an identity parade.
And that they had been many younger victims of rape and attempted rape who had done exactly what she was about to do.
The girl was so traumatised she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It’s of course easy to vent at the police. But what’s up the cavalier attitude to crime in our country?
Instead of clamouring to be called generals and brigadiers, the men and women at the top of the food chain should be fi ghting for institutional reform for the South African Police Force.
If a police station has no room with a two-way mirror, buy one! The tail-end of the judicial system (that would be prison) needs reform too.
There are many South Africans who resent the fact that men who have brutalised them eat bacon and rice pudding in prison. What happened to good ol’ leg irons and hard labour? If Nelson Mandela broke stone, what about this vermin?
•Sim believes in the Ghandian mantra that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
