By NewsBits
On Sunday December 4, 23-year-old man Saed Mohamed, of The Oval in Firth Park, was arrested after reports that a woman in her 80s had been assaulted in Firth Park in Sheffield.
Mohamed has been charged with attempted rape, sexual assault, and assault, along with common assault relating to an earlier incident in Sheffield city centre. The victim was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and has since been discharged.
Fiji based FBC news reported the tale of a 20-year-old man that was last month charged with the rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault of a 79-year-old woman. They also told the story of a 52-year-old man who was charged with the rape of his three-year-old grand-niece.
What could have 36-year-old Kris Moedts to a wheelchair-bound 89-year-old woman? Well, he has been sentenced to eight years over the attack and she has been granted right to take her life following the intolerable attack in Belgian care home.
The wheelchair-bound lady, whose name was not given postponed her euthanasia so she could first see her attacker jailed. She was attacked in a care facility in Lint, near the city of Antwerp, in July by a man named Kris Moedts.
Moedts was sentenced to eight years over the attack, which lawyers said, ‘defies all imagination’, this week after which the woman’s euthanasia request was approved. Lawyers told a court in Belgium that she had delayed the request so that she could see Moedts sentenced first.
Moedts, had drunk six beers and had taken cocaine before entering the care home, according to local reports. The court was told that he had helped another wheelchair-bound care home resident inside the building before making his way to the victim’s room.
‘Once inside, he barricaded the door of the room with a chair and a cupboard door,’ the prosecutor to the court. According to the victim, he crawled into bed with her and groped her extensively.
‘She cried and screamed fiercely and luckily managed to push the alarm button.’ One of the caretakers managed to push the door open despite it being blocked.
Lawyers added: ‘When he came in, he saw the man standing next to the bed barefoot and heard the lady crying. The sheet and underpants of the lady had been pulled down, which she could not have done herself in her state of health.
‘He was so shocked by what he saw there that he later asked for the help of the victim support services himself. Moedts meanwhile fled outside through the back door of the room and was able to escape. The police caught him shortly afterwards.’
Solicitor Walter Damen said the victim had already submitted two requests for euthanasia before the attack because her health has ‘seriously failed’ in recent years. Both were refused.
‘What Kris has done to her now defies all imagination and has hurt her deeply,’ he said. ‘So deep that her third request for euthanasia has been approved.
The euthanasia is scheduled for December 12. All she wants now is to say goodbye with dignity. And the family especially wants an answer to the ‘why’ question. Why did this have to happen now?’
Attorney Xavier Potvin, acting for Moedts, said he has been unable to give an answer.
‘According to him, it would never have happened if he hadn’t taken that cocaine,’ the lawyer said. That caused him to black out. In fact, there is no evidence that he is sexually attracted to the elderly.’
Nigeria is not exempt as President, Coalition of Societies for the Rights of Older Persons in Nigeria, Sen. Eze Ajoku, revealed that older persons were also being violated and raped.
Ajoku while calling for urgent action to curb such nefarious acts told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that such crime was being perpetrated in silence and without anyone talking about it. He called on the government at all levels and stakeholders to rise to the occasion by including the protection of older persons in the campaign against Gender-Based Violence.
“Older persons are being abused every day. Older women are being raped by young persons, even older men. A woman of over 80 years in a Nigerian village said she was raped. After she made the revelation, about 26 older women came out to say that they were raped too and this thing thrives in silence,” Ajoku said.
The COSROPIN President who condemned all forms of Gender-Based Violence, challenged Nigerians to break the silence which according to him is unacceptable.
He said that it was time to collectively put an end to sexual violence against women especially older persons for a prosperous and disciplined country. Ajoku wondered how some people had delighted in rape and forceful violations of others, saying that it was time to address the menace.
He, however, appealed to Nigerians to eliminate all forms of elder abuse either in the form of gender violence or abuse by care providers and family members. He said old age is a blessing and old people should end their journey on earth on a joyous note.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk with additional reports from NAN.
