MASERU — She took a piece of a birthday cake to a gardener at the family home.
But the gardener was not satisfied with the piece of cake.
He then allegedly dragged her inside the house and raped her.
This was the fate of a nine-year-old Maseru girl last Monday.
Police spokesperson Masupha Masupha confirmed that the girl was sexually assaulted when he went to the man’s cottage to give him a piece of cake.
“It was reported that there was a birthday party at the girl’s home,” Masupha said.
“The girl was asked by her parents to go and give the man a slice of cake in his cottage.”
He said when the girl arrived at the man’s cottage the gardener pulled her inside and then raped her.
“After the incident the girl went back to the house where the party was being held and told her parents what had happened,” Masupha said.
When the parents went to the cottage to investigate they discovered the man had fled.
Other villagers in Lithoteng then joined the girl’s family to look for the man.
The man was later caught hiding at some place in the village, the police said.
“The police arrested the man and he was taken to the clinic for an HIV and Aids test and his results came out positive,” Masupha said.
Under the law it is mandatory for those accused of committing rape to undergo HIV testing.
“Police decided to do the tests on the man because in most rape cases the victims later find out that people who raped them were HIV positive,” Masupha said.
He said in most cases rapists who are HIV-positive claim that they rape children because they believe they would be cured.
“Unfortunately this is false. They are only harming the children,” he said.
Investigations into the rape case are continuing.
In Quthing a 28-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man were stabbed to death two weeks ago.
According to a police report the man and woman were stabbed to death by a 46-year-old man who suspected that the deceased man was having an affair with his wife.
“A 46-year-old man claimed that his wife and the 36-year-old man were using the 28-year-old woman’s place as their meeting place,” Masupha said.
“It is reported that the 46-year-old man went to the 28-year-old woman’s place looking for his wife who always visited that woman’s place,” he said.
He said when the suspect arrived at the woman’s house, the deceased tried to stop him from going inside the house.
The man stabbed the woman — who was believed to be his wife’s friend — first and then went into the house and stabbed the man he suspected was having an affair with his wife.
The police said the man’s wife had already left when her husband arrived at the house.
The man was arrested immediately and he is helping the police with investigations.
Masupha said the man handed in his lebetlela stick and knife to the police.
Both weapons will be used as exhibits in court.
He would be charged with murder.
Meanwhile, an unidentified man was stabbed to death with a knife in Thibella village, Maseru, last week.
The police said a call was made to Pitso Ground police station on June 25 at around 10pm by a villager informing the police that a man had been found lying motionless on the street.
“When the police arrived at the scene the man was lying there with open wounds on the chest,” Masupha said.
“Police found out that the man was stabbed by a 25-year-old man who resides in Thibella village,” he said.
Masupha said it is alleged that the two men had an argument over firewood that they were both cutting earlier that day.
“It seemed like both men were cutting the firewood so that they could sell it. However the suspect claims that deceased cheated him by taking more firewood,” he said.
He said the suspect handed himself to the police and surrendered the knife that he had used to stab his colleague.
The man is in police custody.
