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An American woman was gang raped and beaten on a public transport van as her French boyfriend was handcuffed, beat with a crowbar and forced to watch, according to police in Rio De Janeiro.
Three men ranging in age from 20 to 22 have been arrested for the crime, which occurred over a span of six hours just after midnight on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. The suspects have been accused of another similar attack. This one involved a Brazilian woman who claims she was raped by the same men in the van on March 23.
“The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence,” police officer Rodrigo Brant told the Globo TV network. “Just how they described the facts was shocking — the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things.”
“These type of crimes committed against foreign tourists are very uncommon,” said Alexandre Braga, the police officer leading the investigation.
The victims were taking the van from Rio’s Copacabana beach neighborhood to Lapa in downtown Rio. The suspects entered the van and forced the other passengers to get out. They then raped the female as the van was moving, according to Braga. The suspects took turns driving the van to the city of Niteroi, which is where they went on a spending spree using the victims’ credit cards.
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Braga said that when the spending limits were reached, the men drove the victims back to Rio and told the woman to get them another credit card. Braga noted that even though she was alone, the woman did not call for help, “because the young man was still under the suspects’ control and she feared something even worse might happen to him.”
The victims were dumped on the side of a highway near Itaborai. Braga said the woman has returned to the United States and the man is still in Rio helping with the investigation.
“The victims recognized the three without a shadow of a doubt,” Braga said.
Two of the suspects confessed to the attack while the third denies it completely. “They do not show any repentance,” Braga said. “They are quite indifferent, cold.”
