A tricycle driver was arrested in a follow-up operation at about 2 p.m. yesterday after he allegedly raped and attempted to kill a restaurant employee in Brgy. Bata, Bacolod City.

The 27-year-old suspect of Purok Bayabasan, Brgy. Bata, Bacolod, whose name was withheld by the police, was arrested by operatives of the City Police’s Special Operation’s Group, Women and Children’s Complaints Desk and Police Station 3.

SOG head, Supt. Santiago Rapiz, said they initially invited two tricycle drivers for questioning and later presented them to the victim, who positively identified the suspect.

The victim, 20, of Brgy. Bata had come from her workplace and rode the suspect’s tricycle on her way home at about 1 a..m. yesterday. Instead of bringing her home, the suspect brought her to a sugarcane field.

The victim told the police that the suspect dragged her into the sugarcane field, stuffed one of his hands into her mouth so she could not shout and raped her.

After raping the victim, the suspect reportedly hit her head with a hard object and left. The victim pretended to be dead, and when the suspect was already gone, she got up and went home to seek help from her family, the police said.

The victim sustained head injuries, hematoma on both eyes and was traumatized. She is now confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, Rapiz said.

Rapiz said the medical examination result conducted on the victim showed that she was indeed raped.

The police recovered a sweatshirt with bloodstains and the victim’s fan from the tricycle of the suspect when they searched it, Rapiz said. The suspect denied the crime but the victim was certain that it was him who raped and attempted to kill her, he added.

Further investigation also showed that the suspect had been arrested before for sniffing rugby.

The suspect is now detained at Police Station 3, and charges for rape and frustrated murder will be filed against him, Rapiz said.*APN

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