Woman hands in man's tongue as evidence
A woman bit off the tongue of her alleged rapist and then gave it to police as evidence, Free State police said on Friday.
Captain Veronica Ntepe said the 32-year-old woman from Mahlatswetsa, near Excelsior, was woken up on Thursday night when a man broke into her bedroom at around 11pm.
While allegedly raping the woman, the man forced his tongue into her mouth.
"This was the gravest mistake he made. The woman bit (off) the front part of his tongue," Ntepe said. The man immediately ran away.
The woman called the police and handed over the piece of tongue.
Police put out an alert for a man with a piece of his tongue missing.
A suspect was arrested on Friday afternoon.
Police have sent the tongue to the forensic science laboratory in Pretoria to test whether it belonged to the arrested man.
The 23-year-old man, from Mahlatswetsa, will face charges of rape and house-breaking in the Excelsior magistrate's court on Monday. - Sapa