‘Rescuer said he would save me, then raped me’
“He told me to grab his hand, that he will save me,” said the 18-year-old girl, who asked not to be named for fear of being ostracised by her village.
She recalled flailing in the water, desperately trying to keep afloat and barely aware of the screams and chaos around her when she heard the voice offering help.
“I took his hand,” she said, seated on a bed in a room in Galle, Sri Lanka, where she has secluded herself since she was released from a hospital five days ago.
The stranger assured the teenager he would take her back to look for her family.
Instead, he pushed her into a thorny bramble and raped her.
“I screamed and told him not to hurt me,” she said. “He put his hands around my neck and told me that even if he kills me right there, no one will ever know.”
The young woman is not alone. Authorities have received various reports of sexual abuse, including children, in the aftermath of the tsunami.
