16-year-old girl gang-raped by 33 men

SAO PAULO: With less than two months to go before the world's top athletes and hundreds of thousands of sport lovers head to Rio de Janeiro for Olympics 2016, the city's image has taken a severe beating with a gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl by more than 30 men in an impoverished favela (slum) of the city. The girl's nightmare began last Friday night when she went to stay at her boyfriend's house on the western fringe of the city. She woke up on Sunday morning and found herself surrounded by 33 men, many of them carrying pistols and rifles.



Badly shaken by the assault that went on for more than 36 hours, the victim tried to escape from a hospital several times on Thursday. "I just want to go home," the teenager has pleaded with hospital staff and her family.



The case, which has sent shock waves across the biggest South American country, came to the light on this Wednesday after more than 800 people contacted a hotline in the state public prosecutor's office to report about certain tweets in which a couple of men were bragging about assaulting a girl. Filled with obscene description of her body, the tweets had photos and videos of the girl, who is apparently drugged, naked and struggling to regain consciousness.

As the victim now undergoes treatment and counselling at the hospital, her poor family is completely devastated. "She is crying and still shaken. 

They messed up my daughter. They almost killed her. I am in pain. She is traumatized," the 16-year-old's father told local media, asking them not to reveal his identity. The girl's grandmother too spoke to a local radio station, saying the girl suffered a blackout during the assault. "The video is shocking. I watched it. She's completely off," the grandmother told the radio.



After a massive outcry against the crime, the police have detained four persons, including her 20-year-old boyfriend who is suspected of direct participation in the crime. An 18-year-old is suspected of posting the girl's naked photos on the internet.