Suspect arrested for ‘attacking’ Roodepoort pupil

The suspect allegedly attacked the victim on the second floor of one of the school buildings last month. The man was believed to have threatened the victim, and attempted to strangle her. When she started screaming, the suspect ran away, Roodepoort Record reported.

Roodepoort police spokesperson Nonhlanhla Khumalo said the man stopped at the school in a white Jetta without registration plates. He told people he was looking for a child’s backpack.

The incident was captured on CCTV footage, which was later handed over to the Roodepoort police.

Khumalo added a teacher recognised the suspect’s face and vehicle when she drove past a church last night. A warrant of arrest was issued, and Roodepoort police apprehended him at the house. The suspect will appear at the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Last month, a female pupil was allegedly sexually assaulted by a boy wielding a screwdriver at a school in Rabie Ridge, near Midrand.

The alleged incident took place in one of the girls’ toilets, which pupils were cleaning as a form of punishment.

The 10-year-old victim’s mother, whose name cannot be disclosed to protect the child, said she knew something was wrong when her daughter refused to attend school and asked to go and live with her father.

When she went to inquire at the school if something had happened to her child, she was told by other pupils her child had been sexually assaulted.

Rabie Ridge police spokesperson Constable Jacob Mhlongo said the 10-year-old girl was receiving counselling and had been checked by a doctor.

– Caxton News Service