Man gang-raped at Tuku show

Man gang-raped at Tuku show

PERFORMER: Mtukudzi and marimba player Charles Chipanga exchange some notes at the Leeds show

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By Mduduzi Mathuthu

YORKSHIRE police are investigating claims that a man was gang-raped by up to four men just minutes after the end of a music concert in Leeds staged by Zimbabwean superstar, Oliver Mtukudzi, The New Zimbabwe can reveal.

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire police said: “We are investigating allegations of sexual assault brought by a 37-year-old male. The assault took place between September 30 and October 1. No arrests have so far been made.”

Police are said to be looking for four men, one of them positively identified by the victim as the gang leader.

The main suspect, a Zimbabwean second hand electrical appliances dealer, lived in Manchester but is now thought to be living in Stockton near Middlesbrough. Detectives believe he could also be in Doncaster where he has a brother.

A source revealed: “He attends auctions in Manchester quite often.”

New Zimbabwe sources said the victim, a Zimbabwean businessman based in Leeds and a former customs officer, had endured hours of abuse including:

• Being injected with muscle-relaxing drugs

• Repeated sexual assaults

• Being injected with the blood of one of his attackers thought to be HIV positive

• Being castrated

• Being dumped on the road side before he was rescued by an ambulance crew

A friend of the victim told The New Zimbabwe: “He feels £15 (cover charge for Tuku show) has cost him so much.”

The bizarre incident has shocked Zimbabweans in Leeds and surrounding areas.

A friend of the victim’s revealed: “He remembers that he was involved in an altercation with one of his attackers while having a braai at the back of the Ramgarhia Centre where the concert was.

“He knows the man quite well because they worked together at the department of customs and excise in Zimbabwe.

“He thought the dispute had been settled but as he was leaving the venue, the guy came out of the shadows and hit him with a brick on the head.

“He was dragged to a waiting car and within seconds, four men were on him. He was injected with a drug which he suspects to be the date rape drug Rohypnol, and when he protested that he doesn’t take drugs, because he thought he was being drugged, they told him the substance injected in his body was to make him forget everything.

“He says the men drove the car out of the Ramgarhia Centre and took a turn into an alleyway not far away. Once there, he said he saw the gang leader lowering his trousers as the others held his hands and legs.

“He begged the guy to wear a condom, but the man said he was doing to him what they had done to him in prison, blaming the victim for causing his arrest. The victim has no recollection of the alleged incident which led to the man’s arrest.”

The victim is said to have lost consciousness during the assault, but recalls seeing his main attacker drawing blood from his veins with a syringe before injecting him.

Moments later, he was pushed out of the car.

The friend said: “He recalls telling the men that he would report them to the police, to which he was told he won’t remember a thing.”

The victim was found bleeding profusely by an ambulance crew called by passers-by.

But it was not until Wednesday, October 3, that he started regaining his memory.

The pal said: “He knew he had something to remember. He couldn’t pass urine and his backside was extremely sore from the sex attack. His memory returned in flashes, and he shakes violently at every little detail of the sex attack he remembers.”

On Monday, friends said the victim could neither walk, sleep nor eat.

He told a friend: “The most painful bit is that my businesses are on hold. I would not do what these people did to me to a dog. I would not live with myself. So why did they target me? I fear they are lining up more victims, and they must be caught.”

The New Zimbabwe tracked down the chief suspect by phone. He denied he was at the concert.

“I am surprised you would ask me that,” he said. “I wasn’t there (show). Maybe if it was a rape involving a woman…It’s disgusting to think I would rape a man.”

Asked again if he was at the concert, he said: “I wasn’t there.”

When told the conversation was being recorded, he said: “You have no right to do that.”

The suspect is widely known in Manchester to be suffering from HIV.

We also tracked down his brother in Doncaster, who said he had not seen him in “about four months”.

The brother said: “This is shocking.”

Ezra Tshisa Sibanda, a spokesman for Mtukudzi’s promoters, Apollo Productions, said: “Mtukudzi will be devastated. His fans mean a lot to him and the thought that one of them endured the pain you describe so soon after the show, most probably when Mtukudzi was still at the venue, is just too shocking to contemplate.

“Our prayers are with him and his family.”

If you have information about this incident, please ring Yorkshire Police on 01132414612
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