SIBU: Police managed to arrest a suspected rapist just before he could flee by express boat to his hometown in Kapit.

The 17-year-old was one of two suspects in the rape of a Primary 5 pupil last Thursday.

The cops who had been tipped off stormed the express boat at the wharf just as the youth, who had boarded the boat, was about to pay for his ticket home.

He is expected to be remanded today (Tuesday) under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The police have yet to arrest the other rapist.

The 10-year-old girl had used her father’s handphone to call the youth last Wednesday night.

The youth, a friend of the girl’s 15-year-old sister, took her to a garden in Taman Permai then to his house at midnight.

A friend of the youth came too, and the two were said to have raped the girl in the house.

The girl spent a night there and returned home the next day.

When pressed by her family members, she told them of the rape.

Her elder sister took her to the police station to lodge a report that morning.

The girl has been sent to hospital for a medical examination.