Police probe alleged gang rape of student

Listen to this article:

Picture: FILE.

INVESTIGATIONS have begun into the alleged rape of a 16-year-old student by four secondary school students at a maritime high school.

Police spokeswoman Ana Naisoro said police officers were deployed to the island on Tuesday to investigate claims made by the victim’s grandmother.

She said the grandmother lodged the complaint last Thursday after she learned of the incident from villagers.

Speaking to this newspaper under the condition of anonymity, the grandmother said she was upset over how the case was handled by school administrators.

“I was told that the incident had happened over three weeks ago,” she said.

“No-one from the school came to my village to inform me of what happened.

“I didn’t know until rumours started around the village.”

She said a day before filing the police report she spoke to the head of school about the alleged incident.

“When I asked him what happened, he said it was true and that they had reported the matter to the Ministry (of Education) but there was no response.

“What I want to know is why they didn’t go to the police as well.

“This is a criminal case and no-one did anything to find out what happened to my granddaughter.

“Until now, she was allowed to stay in the hostel and go about her classes as if nothing happened.”

She said arrangements were being made to transfer the Year 10 student to another school.

The grandmother’s claims were also posed to Minister for Education Rosy Akbar in several emails from this newspaper but remain unanswered.

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 19
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)