Students raped, chopped and left for dead

Two sisters, ages 12 and 15, have been hospitalised since last week after a man broke into their house, through the bathroom window, and raped them, after which he inflicted several life-threatening chop wounds on them.

The girls' older sibling said she is seeking counselling for them following the gruesome act.

"Their general mood appears fine but I know they are really traumatised. One of my sisters doesn't want any male doctors around her and honestly I don't know what to say. We will not be living back at that location and I am very afraid because the person who did it is still on the run. So I am imploring the police to just do the best they can to capture him," she said.

It is alleged that the siblings, ages 12 and 15, were at home when a male from the community gained entrance to their home by removing window panes from the bathroom. After raping them, the culprit stabbed and chopped them before fleeing the area. The woman, 23, said she has been playing a maternal role for the girls after their mother was murdered in the community approximately three years ago. She said the girls remain hospitalised, but a full recovery is far away.

"They are coming along but my 12-year-old sister still has a tube inside her chest while the 15-year-old is walking and talking now. She has an X-ray to do on her hand that was chopped. Dem get chop in dem head and all over. The little one get stab with an ice pick in her lungs and it was punctured so that is why she have the tube to her lungs as well," she said.

"I am just trying to do the best for the girls. I am still mourning the death of our mother but I still have to be there for them. I have to go visit them and I have an aunt who visit as well but I am their mother now although I am still in my early 20s," she added. The young woman said on the morning of the incident she went to a nearby shop to get some change for her siblings to take to school. She usually do this the night before, but fell asleep.

"I have to get up and help them get ready for school. Is about little past 5 in the morning I went to the shop. The littler one was still asleep when I left the house," she said.

Another relative said the family has suffered several brutal attacks over the past few years.

"Dem live down that side because from dem mother died, dem fraid. Mi fraid too, enuh. The family go through a lot, enuh, because after dem mother dead, one a mi son get murdered and di next one sick and dead. Mi just have to take church for it. We guh thru a lot here suh bwoy," she said.

Head of the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, Superintendent Maldria Jones-Williams, confirmed that an incident took place and that the victims were badly injured. Meanwhile, THE STAR spoke with several residents who expressed anger over the horrific incident.

"Mi a tell yuh say is a very wicked act the man do, enuh. Anyhow we did catch him or ever catch him, reporters a go come round here fi a different news because it bun we bad. Imagine him broke in on the children ... and do what him a do and stab and chop dem and think dem woulda dead. Him wicked man," a resident said.