After receiving a ‘sound trashing’ from villagers…
A 42-year-old man was last evening taken into police custody, allegedly for molesting a ten-year-old girl at her Herstelling, East Bank Demerara home late yesterday afternoon while her mother was not at home. Reports are that the child and her mother occupy a house at Herstelling which they rent from the man, a carpenter by profession. The woman is said to be estranged from her husband who lives elsewhere. The accused, whose wife died about four to five years ago, lives alone at Fifth Street, Herstelling.

Villagers claim that around 15:00 hrs. yesterday,  after the girl’s school had dismissed, the man turned up outside the school’s compound and picked her up, allegedly under the pretext of wanting her to show him a part of the home that needed repairs. The child accompanied him to her home where he allegedly molested her.

Neighbours who said they saw the two of them enter the home, recalled that after a prolonged period not seeing him come back out of the house, they became suspicious and peeped in. They recalled that they saw the child, dressed in her tights and a top, and his hand was in the tights. The neighbours said they immediately raised an alarm and villagers stormed the house and demanded that he came out.  The police were called in, and the mother was summoned as well.

Meantime, incensed, the villagers (including little boys in the scheme), pounced on the accused and gave him a ‘sound thrashing’ before turning him over to the police.

Villagers last night told this newspaper that the child confessed that, once in the house, the accused held her down, placed his hand over her mouth and began fondling her. She was repulsive, but he cajoled her, saying that he has two daughters and he does it to them as well, and she would love it.

The man was arrested and the child and her mother taken to a hospital where she was examined.
Police are continuing their investigations.