A 14-year-old girl has killed herself after she was gang-raped in a cemetery and the pictures and videos of the attack were posted online.
The horrifying ordeal took place in Ghent, Belgium, and has drawn a response from the very top of the Belgian government, with the country’s justice minister expressing his shock and outrage over what happened.
So far, five people, all from Ghent, have been arrested after police identified the alleged perpetrators from the online images.
The suspects include three minors aged 14 and 15 and two adults aged 18 and 19.
The girl, from Gavere, south of Ghent, thought she was meeting a friend on May 15. However, on getting to the Westerbegraafplaats cemetery, she found four other people were also there with her friend, and they allegedly gang-raped her.
Four days after it happened, the girl killed herself. Her family were then told about the attack by one of the girl’s friends, who she had confided in.
According to Belgian media reports, two of the minors who have been arrested are brothers, and some of the suspects were already known to police.
They have been arrested on suspicion of rape, indecent assault and the taking and dissemination of photographs likely to constitute an attack on the integrity of a person.
The two adults will be in court next Wednesday.
Denis Dierick, the mayor of Gavere, said he knew the victim well and said her death was “pure horror” and “an inhuman tragedy”.
Justice minister Vincent van Quikernborn promised on Twitter that those responsible for the girl’s dreadful ordeal would be punished.
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