A 30-year-old man was arrested in connection with the rape and murder of a two-year-old girl from Valhalla Park in Cape Town, police said on Saturday.
”A 30-year-old man was arrested by the Bishop Lavis police this morning [Saturday] at about 11.30am in the Cape Town Airport industria area in connection with the alleged murder and rape of the two-year-old girl Randaline Fortune from Valhalla Park,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones.
Jones said that the girl’s mother went to work at a nearby spaza-shop and left the child in the care of her sister on Thursday.
The man, who was her neighbour, came to fetch the child at about 1.30pm and was alone with her in his home until 7pm.
”He then took the child home wrapped in a blanket, and told her family that something was wrong with her. He told them that the child had dirtied herself and that he had to dispose of her underwear.”
The mother was told at her workplace at about 8pm by a family member to come home because something was wrong with her daughter.
The child was taken to the Elsies River Day Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival, Jones said.
He said the doctor indicated that the child had possibly been raped.
A postmortem would be conducted to determine the cause of her death as well as whether the child had been raped.
The suspect is expected to appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court on Monday. – Sapa