Vigilantes in Brazil have hacked off a man's penis after suspecting him of raping a 3-year-old girl, reports suggest.
The 66-year-old man recognized as Francisco de Souza de Castro also had three of his fingers chopped off by angry assaulters in their brutal revenge attack in Severinia, Sao Paulo state in the week end.
Castro was rushed to Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital, in nearby Barretos, where doctors tried to re-attach his phallus, but all was in vain, local newspaper Estadoa reports.
The newspaper reports that the man worked as a housekeeper in a farm in Sevenoaks, where the grandparents of the 3-year-old girl took the child to have fun over the weekend.
Her mother reportedly spotted signs of the alleged rape when her daughter returned home later that night.
It's unclear who carried out the attack on Castro, although local media have speculated that it could have been angry relatives of the child.
Marcelo Pupo, the police chief in charge of investigating the case, told the local newspaper that Castro had been "conscious" during the time he was attacked and will be able to identify the assailants.
Pupo also stated that the results of forensic tests on the alleged young victim have not yet been confirmed, although he added that it currently appeared that the young girl had in fact been raped.
The story has created quite a buzz in the Internet ever since it was first reported.
"If he did indeed rape that baby he got what he deserved," Jethro Tull commented after reading the news in New York Daily.
"Hope they got the right guy! If they got an innocent man, they should go to prison for a long time," said another person named Dan S.
(Ed:AJ)
