by Cap » Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:42 pm
Cops traumatised after attack...
'Pretoria - Police officials who attended a crime scene near Polokwane over the weekend, where a man was beaten to death, his wife was repeatedly raped and their 3-year-old granddaughter was assaulted, received trauma counselling and were addressed by a pastor afterwards.
"We were very upset about what we saw. We will ensure that we find the people who did this," said police spokesperson Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe.
Fifteen armed men overpowered a 54-year-old man, his 64-year-old wife and granddaughter at about 03:00 while they were sleeping on a smallholding at Dalmade outside Polokwane.
Ngoepe said the attackers had assaulted the man with blunt objects over his face and body.
"They beat him to death.
Filled with horror
"While they were beating him, five men took turns raping the woman. The child saw everything and when she started crying, they hit her hard in the face," said Ngoepe, still clearly upset, on Monday.
"It was a horrible scene. We were filled with horror. It was not pretty. A police counsellor and a minister were called to the scene and police officials received counselling afterwards.
Ngoepe said the woman and child were being treated in a local hospital. "The woman is badly traumatised.
"The motive for the murder is still unknown as nothing was stolen from the house. We also don't want to speculate at this stage that it was a revenge attack."
Ngoepe said a huge manhunt had been launched and that police hoped to soon find the attackers with the help of the public.
The unit against organised crime was investigating the incident.
"We don't want to give out too many details as we don't want to give the attackers the opportunity to use it against us when we find them."
Police asked people with information about the incident to call 10111.'