Police in Rome on Monday said they have arrested a 36-year-old Liberian man in the kidnapping and rape of a 26-year-old Nigerian woman last Saturday night, November 19th.
According to leading Italian news agency, ANSA news online, the woman, a newcomer to Rome, was unsure how to get home and heeded the man’s offer to accompany her on a bus.
She told police the man took her to the unfamiliar outlying neighborhood of San Basilio. Once off the bus, he covered her mouth and dragged her to a derelict building frequented by the homeless where he bound, gagged and raped her.
The victim managed to free herself of the gag after about an hour and screamed for help, attracting the attention of passersby who called police. First responders found her tied up on a mattress in a state of panic. She was hospitalized, while the accused was arrested.