Publications
Partners
Pretoria - An 8-year-old autistic boy was stabbed five times during a house robbery in Springs on Tuesday.
"There was only R150 cash in the house. For R150 my poor child nearly died," a traumatised Chrisanthy Peens, 38, told Netwerk24 on Wednesday.
As far as she could determine, the money is all the robbers took.
Her son Jannie, who is autistic, can't speak and wears a diaper. He sometimes has to use a wheelchair.
"He can't even say he hurts," Peens said.
She was alone at home with him on Tuesday morning. He was jumping on the trampoline in the front garden and she was standing close by.
Robbers looked 'nervous'
Suddenly two men armed with knives appeared.
"They said: 'Go inside and don't make a sound,'" Peens said.
She said they looked nervous.
"Jannie was still on the trampoline when they grabbed me. He jumped off and screamed at them. Then the robbers pushed us into the house."
The robbers wanted money. Peens told them they didn't keep cash in the house.
"Then one of them stabbed my child. Five times. Twice in his back at his shoulder blade, once in his stomach and once in each arm."
Head banged against wall
Peens started screaming and fighting.
"I screamed: 'Leave my child alone, I told you we don't have money!' but the man just kept on stabbing Jannie.
"My child screamed in a way he had never done before."
In the struggle to save her child, Peens was cut ten times on her arms.
Then one of the robbers banged her head against the wall.
"He did it a couple of times until I lost consciousness."
She dropped to the floor.
No arrests
"When I woke up, Jannie was standing in the kitchen in his bloodied blue shirt and the robbers were gone. Luckily they didn't see my phone where it was charging. I was so dizzy I had to crawl to it."
Peens called her husband and the local community policing forum.
They were taken to hospital.
"The cut on Jannie's stomach and one on his arm are very deep. Thank God there was no internal damage," Peens said.
They have been discharged from hospital.
Police spokesperson Captain Johannes Ramphora said the robbers probably stabbed Jannie to force his mother to co-operate.
No arrests have been made yet.
