Suspect in Hankey farmhouse attack tracked down to near Lesotho border

THE man who allegedly attacked a Hankey woman and her three children at their farmhouse last month and fled the town has been arrested.

Police said yesterday they had tracked down the 32-year-old suspect to a small town near Palmietfontein – about 3km from the Lesotho border – in the Eastern Cape.

He was arrested on Wednesday and is being detained in Port Elizabeth pending his appearance in the Hankey Magistrate’s Court today.

The 44-year-old woman was shot in the lower back while trying to shield her three children from the attacker inside their farmhouse. She was also allegedly raped. The woman is not being identified because of the sexual nature of the attack.

New charges of indecent assault have also been added, but police would not elaborate.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the man had been nabbed by a team of detectives from the Port Elizabeth-based provincial organised crime investigation unit.

“The team followed up information which led them to the KwaGuna administrative area in the Nketlana Location, near the Lesotho border,” she said.

“With the assistance of Palmietfontein police, the man was tracked down to a family residence where he was hiding.

“He was [allegedly] found in possession of stolen clothing and takkies that had been taken during the incident.”

During the attack on March 23-24, the intruder took the woman in her vehicle to an ATM in Hankey to withdraw cash.

While he was withdrawing the money, the woman managed to drive away to another farm, where the police were alerted.