TWO eastern Free State men will appear in the Tweeling Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in connection with the rape of their 14-month-old niece earlier in the week, police said. Sergeant Loraine Kalp on Wednesday said the men, 34 and 37, were arrested on Tuesday after the mother found the baby crying and saw blood on her bottom when she lifted her. The girl’s mother had left her baby in the care of the men when she went to visit her mother-in-law. After discovering the blood she took the baby to a clinic where she was told the girl had vaginal damage and had been raped. Kalp said a doctor also detected semen, confirming that the baby had been raped. This is the second reported rape of an infant this week. On Monday six Upington men, aged between 24 and 66, appeared in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on charges of raping and indecently assaulting a nine-month-old baby in Louisvale over the weekend. The baby underwent surgery on Saturday. – Sapa
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