The case against a teenager accused of raping an eight-year-old girl and gouging out her left eye in Gingindlovu was postponed to May 25, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday.

The case was heard in the Gingindlovu Periodical Court on Wednesday, Captain Thulani Zwane said.

The 15-year-old was released into the custody of his parents, and the case would be moved to the Ntunzini Magistrate’s Court for his next appearance.

The girl was dragged into a sugarcane field, near her home, and raped on Monday. She had been walking home from school at the time.

“He gouged her left eye out of the socket, and tried but failed with the right eye, which was left swollen shut. She was bleeding profusely from both eyes,” Zwane said on Wednesday.

Her attacker also bit her in the neck.

“The… victim could barely walk, but managed to drag herself into the yard in front of her house before collapsing.”

The boy’s grandmother called the police to arrest him when he was accused of the crime, the Witness newspaper reported on Thursday.

The woman cannot be named to protect the identity of the child suspect.

She said her grandson had been accused of raping another girl on the same day, and she reprimanded him for it.

“We did not reprimand him the second time because we feared he would run away like he did when the first (victim’s) family came to our house,” she told the publication.

“We called the police.”

The victim was taken to Ngwelezane Hospital where she is in a serious but stable condition. – Sapa