Tricycle driver arrested for rape of 5-year-old

MANILA, Philippines—A 48-year-old tricycle driver was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly raping a five-year-old neighbor in Mandaluyong City, police said.

Senior Inspector Lani Martirez, head of the women and children’s section of the Mandaluyong police, identified the suspect as Jhun Hepe, a resident of Welfareville Compound in Barangay (village) Addition Hills, whom the victim used to call “Kuya (elder brother).”

Martirez said barangay watchmen of Addition Hills turned him over to the Mandaluyong police after they found him in his house around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The police said the toddler, whose name was withheld, went home crying on Tuesday night and narrated to her mother what had happened.

“The man dragged the toddler to his house where he committed the rape. He let her go home afterward,” Martirez said.

The mother immediately reported to authorities to have their neighbor arrested and charged.

The suspect, who appeared neither drunk nor high on drugs, according to Martirez, was charged with statutory rape at the Mandaluyong Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday.