A day after the nation learnt of a “PH” taxi driver’s failed attempt to seduce a primary school student, the child’s mother is saying she did not intend to take part in vigilante justice to capture the man.
However, the woman, whose identity is being withheld by this newspaper, said the man’s quick actions on Thursday night left her with no choice.
On Thursday, the 11-year-old girl got into the man’s taxi after school. When the vehicle’s other passengers dropped off, the man asked the child for her phone number. She became frightened as she was with him in the car alone and gave the number to him, but reported the incident to her mother as soon as she got home.
The man sent WhatsApp messages to the child’s phone later that night. The mother responded, pretending to be the child and the man visited their home, only to be captured and beaten by the woman and her relatives and then handed over to police.
“If you look at the messages, I was trying to get him to come to the house on Friday but he was insistent on coming the same night,” she explained. “When I realised he wasn’t giving up, I agreed but I still didn’t know he would get to my house so quickly.”
The mother said she had no idea the man lived only two streets away from her home and had tried numerous times in the messages to ask him where he lived.
“Everything just happened so fast, I wanted him to come and meet the police waiting for him at my house but before I could even call them, I saw his car pulled up in front. There was nothing we could have done but hold him ourselves.”
Although she said she does not regret capturing the man, the woman said she would have preferred if the police were there before the man arrived.
“This wasn’t how things was supposed to happen and if I could do it again, I might not have told him in the earlier messages that she was home alone...so maybe he would not want to come the same time. But I didn’t realise he was so desperate to get at my child.”
She said her daughter was interviewed by police on Friday and had given a statement.
Alleging that she had been told of other young girls who were harassed by the same man, the woman sent out a call to the public, saying: “If there is anyone whose child this man interfere with, I am begging you to come forward now. People have been telling me all kinds of stories about him now and it is only when people come forward that they can get justice.
“Let us make sure he doesn’t get a slap on the wrist for his actions.”