New | Girl, 12, ‘raped, abused for five years’ by father’s elderly friend, say police
Investigation into father's battery case uncovers girl's ordeal at the hands of his friend and her sometime guardian
A 12-year-old girl from Tuen Mun was sexually abused by her father's 61-year-old friend over a five-year period, police reported on Friday, adding that the case only came to their attention on New Year’s Eve after she was allegedly beaten by her father.
Security officers were alerted after a relative brought the girl to Tuen Mun Hospital for minor abrasions on her arm on Tuesday afternoon.
The officers suspected she was beaten by her 43-year-old father at their home in Tuen Mun, and crime squad officers were sent to investigate.
Officers found enough cause to allege that, apart from the suspected case of physical abuse, the girl had been molested and raped by her father’s 61-year-old male friend since 2008, when the girl would have been seven years old.
The father and friend were both arrested on Thursday night. “The girl’s father was arrested on suspicion of assaulting her and his friend was arrested on suspicion of raping and molesting her,” a police spokesman said on Friday morning.
The sexual offences began when the elderly friend was tasked to look after her at his apartment in Tsing Yi, according to police.
As of Friday afternoon, the two suspects were still at Tuen Mun police station for questioning and both have not been charged. It was unclear if the father knew that the friend was abusing his daughter.
Police recorded 92 reports of rape in the first 10 months of last year, compared to 101 in the same period a year earlier.
Police figures show reports of rape rose by 33 per cent to 121 in the whole of last year from 91 in 2011.
Reports of indecent assault rose by 2.4 per cent to 1,262 in the first 10 months of this year from 1,232 in the same period last year.
