A EUROPEAN national was arrested for allegedly raping an 18-year-old girl in a beach resort in Santa Fe town, northern Cebu yesterday morning.
Xander Tann, a native of Estonia in Europe, faces two counts of rape and trafficking charges, said SPO2 Shiela Illustrisimo of the Santa Fe police’s Women and Children’s Protection Desk.
Illustrisimo said the suspect introduced himself to the victim as an investor of a company based in Lapu-Lapu City. He arrived in the country in December last year.
Illustrisimo said the suspect and the victim became friends in May through an online dating site but did not meet until the girl went to her aunt’s house in Madridejos for a vacation.
Tann was staying in a beach resort in Santa Fe when he learned that the girl was in Madridejos.
Police said Tann went to Madridejos last Saturday to meet the girl.
“While in Madridejos, the girl and the suspect went out several times but in the company of her relatives. She never went with the suspect alone,” Illustrisimo said.
Last Tuesday, Tann returned to the victim’s house and drank with the girl’s relatives.
Police said the victim’s relatives slept ahead, leaving her and Tann outside the house.
Later, Tann asked the girl to accompany him to the town proper to buy more beer.
The girl told the police that when they arrived in town on board Tann’s car, the stores were already closed.
The girl said she became worried when Tann continued driving and asked him to drop her off to her home, but he ignored her.
While driving, the two found a store where Tann bought some bottles of beer.
The girl told the police that she was unfamiliar with the place and thought that they were already heading back to Madridejos.
The girl fell asleep and upon waking up was surprised to see they were already parked in a beach resort in Santa Fe at past 5 a.m. yesterday.
The girl got out of the car and ran, but Tann caught her and brought her to his room.
The girl said she tried to run out of the room, but Tann chased her and tripped.
She checked his condition and then ran to seek help from the caretaker. An angry Tann confronted the caretaker.
“The caretaker couldn’t do anything as the foreigner was bigger than him,” Illustrisimo said.
Illustrisimo said Tann carried the girl back to the room and raped her twice. Police from Bantayan arrived in the beach resort.
Illustrisimo said it so happened that police in Madridejos were tracking down a foreigner who nearly hit a policeman on a motorcycle.
“The policeman who was nearly hit by the foreigner’s car noticed that she was with a teenage girl that’s why they coordinated with us to locate him,” she said.
Illustrisimo said police barged into the room where the foreigner had checked in and found him and the girl inside. The foreigner did not resist arrest, police said.
The girl was later brought to the town’s hospital for an examination where it was confirmed that she was raped, Illustrisimo said.
Tann was detained at the Santa Fe police precinct pending the filing of charges against him.