A teenage girl chopped her father’s head clean off with a bush knife after he raped her in their home in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Now residents of the village have formed a protective ring around the 18-year-old, refusing to hand her over to the police because they agreed her ‘evil’ father deserved to die.
A local church leader, Pastor Lucas Kumi from the village of Rang in the Western Highlands, said the entire community would refuse to allow the girl to be subjected to any official investigation.
‘The people and leaders in our area went and saw the headless body of the father after the girl reported the incident to them and explained why she had killed her father,’ said Pastor Kumi.
He told the Post Courier newspaper that the father, in his mid-40s, raped his daughter when they were alone in their house after the mother and two other children from the family went to visit relatives for the night.
‘The father went to his daughter’s room in the night and raped her repeatedly. ‘The father wanted to rape his daughter again in the morning and that was when the young girl picked up the bush knife and chopped her father’s head off,’ said Pastor Kumi.
‘We’ve all agreed that she is free to stay in the community because the father deserved to die. ‘The daughter did what she did because of the trauma and the evil actions of her father, so that is why we have all agreed that she remains in the community.’ He said a ring of protection had been placed around the girl, who will be kept away from any official investigation.
‘The community have also agreed not to conduct any formal burial service for the father.’
Crimes of rape, murder, suspected witch killings and prostitution are rife throughout Papua New Guinea and as a desperate attempt to stop the lawlessness the government recently re-introduced the death penalty for serious offences.
But at the weekend the Post Courier reported the results of an investigation into child prostitution, a report, it said, that will ‘make you cringe.’
Children aged between 13 and 16, said the paper, were selling sex in the nightclubs of the capital, Port Moresby, five premises being reported to be engaged in the under-age prostitution trade. Three non-government organisations have produced a report based on interviews with no less than 175 child sex workers.
‘It’s true – our girls, and especial school girls, are being bought and sold for sex,’ said one of the investigators.