A WOMAN who was raped and then choked, escaped sure death when members of the Meerensee CPF caught her attacker in the act on Saturday night, while patrolling near Alkantstrand.
Corrie Pretorius of Northern Region Protection Services (NRPS), who was first on the scene with his son Joshua, said he witnessed a car parked in the bushes near Alkantstrand and stopped next to the vehicle, suspecting trouble.
‘Our window was down, and so was his – I then saw a man lying on top of a woman, attempting to strangle her.
‘He jumped up and sped off in the silver Toyota Tazz, so we chased him, until he abandoned the car and fled on foot to Alkantstrand.
‘We found the victim in the car with her head wedged between the passenger seat, which was dropped, and the driver’s seat, with her neck twisted in a strange position.
‘She was naked except for a torn T-shirt.
‘One of our patrollers, Tony, managed to free her head and opened her airway – she started breathing faintly but remained unconscious.
‘We flagged down a passing police van and the suspect was then apprehended and taken to the Richards Bay police station.
‘IPSS Medical Rescue transported the victim to Ngwelezana Hospital – she was still unconscious.
‘We later established that the number plates of the silver Tazz were falsified and in fact belong to a Corsa bakkie.
‘The suspect had no driver’s licence with him.
‘According to the police, the woman was transported to a Thuthuzela Care Centre to have a medical examination to establish if she was raped.
‘Unless alcohol is banned from Alkantstrand, during festive season, we will face many more such tragedies.’
Anybody willing to assist with patrols and emergency response, especially on 16, 26, 31 December and 1 January, can contact Corrie Pretorius on 084 2457428 or Melinda Ashington on 082 5584275.
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