ROME - A 15-year-old girl has been reportedly raped in central Rome's Prati district, metres away from the Rome law courts and Rai television studios, by an Italian Navy non commissioned officer posing as a policeman.

 

  The Apulian girl, who was visiting her friends in Rome during her school holidays, was returning home from the Castel Sant'Angelo St Peter and Paul festivities Monday with two friends, when a self-styled police officer approached them, police said.

 

  He asked them for their identity cards, under the pretext that he had caught them illegally drinking. The girl in question was the only one to have her identity card with her, and after chaining up his bike to a nearby post, he asked her to follow him to the local police station to take note of her details. 

 

  He led her a couple of metres away from her friends on Via Mirabello, to a badly lit garden on Via Teulada, where he allegedly raped her. Gynaecologists from the Gemelli clinic have identified grazes and scrapes on the girl's body, and a bruise on her eyelid, possibly from a slap. 

 

  After the act, the soldier accompanied the teenager to Via Bafile, where according to the girl, he threatened "keep quiet, or I'll kill you". 

 

  The mother of the girls, meanwhile, had left the apartment upon the friends' worried call, and when seeing the alleged rapist, began to chase him.  Video footage has documented four people running after the assailant, however he managed to escape them.

 

  A lead came when the alleged rapist's brother came to collect the chained-up bike. Investigators interrogated him for a couple of hours, and then followed him to their house. They found a pair of freshly washed shorts, which fitted with the girl's description of the man.

 

  He has been identified as a 31 year old, from the Cosenza province, who works for the ministry of defence at the naval arsenal. He was set to leave for another mission Wednesday. He has been identified by the girl, and by other witnesses who testified in the investigation, and has been since arrested. 

 

  Meanwhile, calls have been made for a more efficent police force, becrying the lack of security cameras and the need for more officers patrolling the streets.