KUCHING: A two-day stake-out by police paid dividend yesterday with the arrest of a suspected child rapist at a village in Matang.
State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the suspect, 24, was nabbed around 5pm after he emerged from his jungle hideout to go home in search of food.
“A Padawan CID team conducting a stake-out for the past two nights, led by Inspector Mansur Rahman, apprehended the suspect upon his return home,” he said in a statement.
According to Dev Kumar, the case came to light on Wednesday afternoon when the victim, a five-year-old mentally-challenged girl, returned home crying and complained of pain in her private part.
Her parents examined her and found some bleeding. They suspected something amiss as she had earlier gone out with a man who lives in the same village at Jalan Matang, Padawan.
“This man who lives 50 metres away had asked permission from the parents for their child to accompany him to the sundry shop nearby,” Dev Kumar explained.
The parents brought the girl to Kuching Central Police Station the same evening to lodge a police report.
The child was then brought by police to the General Hospital where a medical examination found signs that she might have been raped.
Police have classified the case as rape under Section 376 of the Penal Code. Dev Kumar revealed that efforts were made to locate and arrest the 24-year-old suspect.
“A raid at his house came up empty and he was suspected to have fled into a nearby jungle after hearing that the victim’s parents had lodged a police report.
The K9 unit was deployed to track down the suspect but failed to find him.”
He congratulated Padawan CID for their determination in capturing the suspect, saying that Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor had directed the CID and district police chiefs to give attention to reports of crime against children and bring the perpetrators to justice swiftly.