Missionary from Calif. gang-raped "highly traumatised"

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Four arrested after missionaries raped in KZN

Four men have been arrested in connection with the rape of two foreign missionaries and the shooting of one of them on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, police said on Monday.

Captain Vincent Pandarum said the two women -- one from Kenya and the other from the United States -- were raped on Friday night as they were walking home on the Old Harding Road near Oslo Beach.

The two, who had been working in the area for the past two years, were first robbed of their handbags before the 23-year old Kenyan was shot in the stomach.

They were then both raped.

Pandarum said the injured woman was in a stable, but serious condition while [B]the 21-year old Californian was highly traumatised[/
B].

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the two women had been transferred from Port Shepstone hospital to St Augustine's hospital in Durban.

Shortly after the attack police responded to an attempted robbery.

Pandarum said it appeared as if the same four men attempted to rob two men who were warming themselves near a fire. A scuffle broke out and two men were arrested in the dense bush after being tracked down by police dogs. On Sunday police arrested a third man, who they believe was involved while on Monday morning a 23-year old man handed himself over to the police at Port Shepstone.

Pandarum said detectives believe that the four men were also involved in two other armed robberies that took place after the rape of the two missionaries.

It was not immediately known with which church the two women were associated. - Sapa

[Whitebear]

LDS missionaries raped in South Africa

The LDS Church has confirmed a disturbing report out of South Africa involving two female missionaries. The sister missionaries were raped, robbed, and one was shot in an attack that lasted more than two hours.

The women were attacked and left next to a busy road on the coast of South Africa in Port Shepstone.

According to news reports, 22-year old woman from Kenya was shot in the upper abdomen, then her attackers grabbed her bags searching for valuables. Her 21-year old companion from California was also victimized by the group of four men.

The news report out of South Africa says the attack lasted more than two hours. The sisters have been serving their mission for four months in
the Durban mission and were walking back to their apartment at the time of the attack. their attackers were reportedly waiting for them in the bushes.

Four men have been arrested in connection with the attack.

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LDS missionary remains in hospital after brutal rape in South Africa

An LDS sister missionary remains hospitalized in Durban South Africa, recovering from a gunshot wound after a brutal attack on her and her companion. Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime.

The two were robbed, beaten and raped last Friday in a coastal city just south of Durban. But this international story has a Utah link.

Molly Jolley of Bountiful has parents serving as her father presides over the Durban South African Mission. Molly has been on the phone with her mother almost constantly since the attack happened. She says her mom has
had very little sleep and has been by both of the hospitalized sisters' sides since the attacks happened.

Molly also knows the area well, She and her family just returned from a one month vacation in South Africa where her parents are serving. She says the place where the attack happened was her favorite vacation spot; a quiet serene beach.

She added, "It really was a shock it would happen there because it's such a beautiful city. It would be like something like that happening in Bountiful, Utah."

The attack happened as the two sisters were walking to their small apartment near the beach. The area is supposed to be one of the safest in the Durban mission, and the two have been missionaries there for the past two years. After talking to her mother, Molly says "I know the church security has gone over and reviewed everything. This guy is former LAPD. They've done extensive research on this and concluded the sisters were doing what they were supposed to be doing and there was nothing to
prevent this."

Molly's parents, Danny and Kelly Brock of Bountiful, have been helping the other missionaries cope and keeping them on task. Molly says her mom is exhausted, and the couple has had no more than two hours of sleep all weekend. She said her mother was more than concerned over the attack, she was heart broken.

Her mother is a labor and delivery nurse, and has been using that knowledge to ensure the sisters are getting the best possible care, both physically and emotionally. But there is nothing that the presidents of this mission can do about the crime rate in South Africa, which is rated as among the worst on earth.

The United Nations lists South Africa as having the second highest assault and murder rates in the world. Each year an average of 170 police officers are killed. A study done in 1996 showed more than 50,000 reports of rape in the country per year, with only one in 20 reported. Missionaries who have recently returned from the area say that crime is also a
problem for them in South Africa, with a car jacking or robbery happening to a missionary every month.

Still, it is a risk that missionaries past and present are willing to take to perform their mission.

Molly said "Bad things happen everywhere and it's unfortunate. My heart goes out to those poor sisters and their families but the work must go on."

Molly's mother has told her there has been a huge outpouring of support from the community. All four of the missionary's attackers have been identified and are behind bars. South African police are calling them "a four-man crime wave."

After their attack on the women, the four men are suspected of committing two other armed robberies before attempting to rob two men who were warming themselves at an outdoor fire. The men fought back, and the attackers fled into nearby dense brush. Police were called, and their dogs tracked down two of the suspects. Two others later turned themselves in.

As for the hospitalized missionaries; t
hey at first said they wanted to complete their missions, but now they say they are taking it a day at a time. The LDS Church issued only one statement on the crime, saying:

"The church makes every effort to ensure missionaries are well informed about the areas where they serve."

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Teen guilty of raping missionaries
Fri, 26 Jan 2007

A 19-year-old man was convicted on Friday of raping two Mormon missionary sisters, admitting that although he raped each victim only once he was also guilty of the rapes perpetrated by three other members of his gang.

Judge Ron McLaren, sitting in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, convicted Lendelani Luthuli of 16 crimes committed at Port Shepstone on June 30 last year after Luthuli pleaded guilty to all 16 of 17 charges.

His erstwhile three co-accused pleaded not guilty to all 17 charges levelled against them and McLaren ordered their trial to be separated from that of Luthuli.

Luthuli was acquitted of a charge of attempting to murder one of the missionaries, who was shot in the body when she resisted a rapist.

Luthuli said that he did not try to kill her.

The State alleges, and Luthuli accepted, that each of the gang of four was guilty of rapes perpetrated by other members of the gang, making each guilty of eight counts of rape. The State avers that each was guilty of all eight counts of rapes as each kept watch during each rape, each remained nearby while the rapes were being perpetrated, and each prevented resistance or escape by the victims.

McLaren called for a probation officer's report before Luthuli was sentenced on May 21.

He is to be detained in the Port Shepstone police cells while the other accused, Siyabonga Nzimande (20), Wonderboy Mthembu (18), and Bongani Ntombela (23), are to be detained in Port Shepstone's prison.

Luthuli has said he did not want to be in the company of his former accused.

The three who pleaded not guilty are to be tried in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on May 21. State advocate Elsa Smith said the trial should not be held in the Ramsgate High Court near Port Shepstone. A psychologist had said the rape victims did not want return to that area because of the trauma they had endured during the outrages.

The rape victim who was shot still has a bullet in her body, apparently as surgeons believe it would be more dangerous to excise it.

The other crimes the three are charged with, all committed on the same day as the rapes, are the aggravated robbery of the missionaries; attempted murder of one of the rape victims; aggravated robberies of Joseph Moodley, Marcus Martin, Kamlan Naicker, Joaquin Venter and Robin Green-Thompson; and unlawful possession of a firearm.

The rapes and robberies of the missionaries were committed in thick bush about 20 paces from the Port Shepstone-Harding road. The missionaries were walking towards a school when they were waylaid.