A Parent's Worst Nightmare

My youngest daughter’s best friend (at the time) had this happen to her. I’ll just call her X.

They were out and met some guys and X then offered to give the one guy a lift home to Umhlanga. My daughter decided that she would rather come home (I thank God for this decision every day) because she didn’t like his “vibe” as she put it. She begged X to not go but she did.

She went into the flat with him and there were a bunch of other guys too. They offered her a glass of wine and within seconds she felt like passing out. She tried to get to the bathroom but was in and out of consciousness, which unfortunately meant she knew exactly what was happening to her and that it was being filmed.

X left in the morning, groggy and bleeding. She said they just sneered at her. She only phoned my daughter in the afternoon and told her. We then met her at St Augustine’s to visit the Jes Foord Clinic there (they were excellent). X didn’t want her mom and sister to know. It was the most difficult thing to see her go through. My heart absolutely broke for her.

Their friendship ended that day because X explained, only a year or so later, that every time she saw my daughter, memories of that night would just flood back.

She never went to the police.

And my daughter only told X’s mom and sister months after it happened because X disappeared one night and they asked my daughter if she knew where X was. She then told them about the drink spike and subsequent gang rape.