Teen escapes 12 years after kidnapping; school bus driver arrested

A Colombian school bus driver has been arrested on rape and kidnapping charges after a girl he allegedly abducted more than a decade ago managed to escape, authorities said Thursday.

The victim went missing twelve years ago at the age of seven.

She escaped in February and reported her alleged abuser, who was arrested last week in the city of Medellin statement from the public prosecutor’s office said.

After being kidnapped, the girl was moved for years between addresses in Medellin and nearby Bello, and allegedly raped on camera.

Her kidnapper, named Carlos Humberto Grisales Higuita in the statement that also included his photo, allegedly changed the girl’s name and kept her out of sight and from school.

The suspect is accused of kidnapping, rape of a minor and producing child pornography material.

The prosecutor’s office said the man had “psychologically manipulated” the girl into believing that this kind of behavior is normal.

When she was 16, the alleged victim confronted her kidnapper, prompting him to lock her in a house from which she escaped earlier this year, prosecutors said.

The man appeared in court last week and denied all charges. He was ordered to be held in pre-trial detention.

Recently uncovered cases of child sexual abuse in Medellin, including by foreign tourists, have sparked a wave of outrage in Colombia.

According to municipal data, the city of 2.5 million recorded 139 cases of child sexual exploitation between January and August this year.

This year, fourteen foreigners were arrested in Medellin for child abuse.

In April the case of one American visitor who was arrested after he entered a hotel with two girls but was later released, leading city hall to ban street prostitution in tourist areas.

Perpetrators of child abuse often go unpunished in the country. The nonprofit Colombia Reports, citing an attorney general’s victim database, reported earlier this year that since 2018, only 1,389 people have been convicted of sexual violence against children – less than 2% of children examined by doctors for alleged sexual violence during the same period.

According to Children change ColombiaEvery year, 200,000 minors are sexually abused in the country. A 2021 Survey on violence against children found that two in five Colombian youth had experienced violence before the age of 18,

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