A special task team was set up to re-investigate the rape of a five-month-old girl in Joubert Park late last year, Johannesburg police said on Friday.
Sergeant Amanda Roestoff said all the witnesses would be interviewed again, including the baby’s mother. The crime scene would also be visited again and scrutinised for any clues.
”The investigation is not over yet,” she said. ”We will continue.”
The follows the release on Thursday of the second suspect in the case because DNA tests failed to link him to the crime. The first suspect was released in March, also because DNA tests failed to
link him to the crime.
Police said in a statement that charges against 21-year-old Vusimuzi Dlamini were provisionally withdrawn for various reasons. The time when the baby was raped did not correspond with the time during which the child was left in the care of Dlamini.
A further problem was that the possible semen found on the child’s disposable nappy could not be isolated for DNA tests. The nappies contain a substance which turns fluids into gel and the chemical used in the DNA analysis reacted negatively to the substance in the nappies.
The police forensic laboratory consulted with an international forensic expert, who was unable to overcome the problem. Dlamini and another man, 25-year-old Martin Dlamini, was arrested days after the baby was raped in a room in the old Action Cinema on the corner of Plein and Claim Streets in December last year.
The 24-year-old unmarried mother allegedly left the baby alone in the room. When she returned, she heard the baby cry and found her covered in blood.
The child was rushed to the Johannesburg Hospital where she had to undergo surgery. Roestoff said the baby was still in a place of safety. – Sapa