A seven-year-old Free State girl was receiving medical treatment on Monday after she was raped and left in a pool of blood in a locked shack in Bronville, police said on Monday.
Warrant Officer Malebo Khosana said police were investigating a case of child neglect against the mother, who was apparently out drinking with a friend at the time.
The friend’s three-year-old child was locked up with the seven-year-old girl on Saturday night, but was unharmed.
Khosana said a neighbour noticed that somebody had broken into the shack on Sunday at about 8am. She went to inspect the shack and saw a child inside who asked her to open the door.
“She said that she looked into the shack and saw a girl lying on the bed that looked that it had blood all over it.”
The neighbour called the police and the girl’s father, who was also staying in Bronville.
The girl told her father that she was raped by a man in the company of two others, who forced open one of the corrugated iron sheets making the shack's wall.
Khosana said the children's mothers were fetched from a shebeens, where they were drinking beer.
Police said it was alleged they locked the children in the shack and went out drinking on Saturday night.
Khosana said police were still looking for the three men. - Sapa