33 yr. old caught red handed molesting 10 yr. old

Throughout our years of broadcasting the news, we have had the grim duty to report horrible atrocities committed against Belizean children. But tonight there is an act so perverse, that it has left horrified eyewitnesses deeply disturbed.

Witness to Child Sexual Assault
?When the girl came out the water, I don?t know if she cried because she was happy that somebody rendered her assistance or if she cried because she was scared or something. But she was crying when she came out the water. And it was so sad you know because one of the co-workers from inside, she was also crying because she seh that it hurts her to see things like that happening to little girls nowadays.?

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Residents of the Yabra community are in shock tonight after a thirty-three year old man was caught having sex with a ten year old girl in broad daylight. The shallow waters near the Esso compound on the southside of the city is a popular swimming spot, but around nine this morning the sea became the scene of a heinous crime.

Eyewitness
?Around nine-ten, nine-fifteen I saw a man and a little girl came in from over that side of the water and they walked into the water, both of them and a little while after, the same guy that was with the little girl grabbed her by the hands two different times and she pulled away and there was a lady outside that called her and she went to the lady, and a little while after, she went back into the water, eating an orange or something. And she stood like halfway from this guy eating the orange and a little while after the guy was calling her like that. She went over to the guy.?

?When she went to the guy, he hold her like this around the waist and then he turned her around facing him and when he do that I see him start to take off clothes from the little girl. When he was finished with that his face was all over this child?s body and he turned her back around and that?s when we saw her sitting in front of him. I don?t know what they were doing in there but is when I was very concerned and that?s when I called the police.?

Janelle Chanona
?At any point when you guys realized what was happening did anybody try to yell at him, try to stop him??

Eyewitness
?Yes there was this guy that came on a cycle and we showed him the little girl, and he went by that corner and he yelled for the little girl but they didn?t stop and a little while after the police came. And when they came, they fired two shots at them for warning and then even the police saw the guy helping the girl putting on her clothes back.?

Janelle Chanona
?Are you a mom??

Eyewitness
?Yes, I am a mother of four.?

Janelle Chanona
?How did it make you feel to see something like that??

Eyewitness
?I don?t know how to explain it because at the time, it felt like it could have been my child you know that I was looking at out there. It was real sad to see that these men are taking advantage of these little girls and I think the police need to do something about this because they come out here and deal with these kids like that and get bail and walk the streets and they are going to do it again.?

The perpetrator has since been detained by the authorities pending charges. He has not been identified due to the sensitivity of the case.

Eyewitness
?I won?t give him bail, I would have just locked him up. I wouldn?t give him bail. I won?t give him bail he just needs to be locked up.?

Tonight News Five understands that police are also investigating whether the woman that was seen giving food to the child shortly before the incident was an accomplice in the attack.