Witness caught man raping girl, 11

The homeless man was gathering wood when he heard a girl crying. He followed the sound, and caught the attacker red-handed while he was raping the 11-year-old.

On Monday Patrick Montsho told the Pretoria Regional Court how he saw the young girl trying to fight off her attacker on May 25, 2008.

Pointing to the accused, Frans Mokgomo, 35, in the dock, Montsho said he was the attacker.

Earlier, Mokgomo pleaded not guilty.

Montsho said at about 5pm that day he was walking along the road at Swartkop squatter camp, near Sunderland Ridge.

He was collecting firewood when he heard the crying.

“I went to look. There was long grass and trees.

“I found this guy busy with the child,” he said.

“The girl was only wearing her tracksuit top. The accused also did not have pants on.

“He held the child’s hands tightly. She was crying and screaming.

“She tried to lift her head as she was fighting him,” Montsho recalled.

Recognising the girl as being from the area, he ran to call her father.

The father testified earlier that “a guy named Patrick came to me, saying my daughter was screaming and there was a man on top of her”.

The father ran to the scene, armed with a stick. He found the girl putting her clothes on while the accused sat on the ground.

The father hit the man on the head with the stick, asking him what he was doing.

“I assaulted him three more times with the stick before taking him to my home and calling the police,” the parent said.

The girl testified earlier that, while in an outside toilet, she heard someone opening the door.

“A man entered.

“Without saying anything he grabbed my hand and pulled me outside.

“He closed my mouth with his other hand,” she recalled.

She was dragged to the bushes where the man made her lie down and pulled off her clothes.

“He then stepped on my hands with his feet while undressing.

The case will continue on January 27 when the doctor who examined the girl and her mother will testify. - Pretoria News