Fugitive arrested for alleged rape of 10-year-old who is now 5 months pregnant

A fugitive has been arrested for the rape of a pregnant 10-year-old girl – but she has been refused an abortion.

Gilberto Benitez Zarate, 42, stands accused of raping the young girl, who is now five-months pregnant, and has been on the run for the last 15 days.

But the Government in Paraguay has refused the victim an abortion due to its pro-life laws.

Benitez Zarate insisted he was innocent and had been set up by his girlfriend, Sky News reports.

He faces 15 years in prison if convicted of rape.

"I will do any test to show it wasn't me," he said.

"I've been with tonnes of women and I never got anybody pregnant."

Police issued a statement saying the man had been detained in the city of Caazapa, around 125 miles south of capital Asuncion.

The case has sparked a huge debate in the South American country over its tough anti-abortion stance.

Humanitarian groups argue that the girl's "tiny" 75-pound frame could put her health at risk during pregnancy.

Health Minister Antonio Barrios, the former personal physician of Paraguay's President Horacio Cartes said in Congress: "The pregnancy will not be interrupted. We've already completely ruled out abortion."

The girl, whose name has been withheld, is under medical care in a special ward for pregnant youngsters at Asuncion's Red Cross Hospital, where she is the youngest of six girls who are either expecting or have already given birth.

She originally went to hospital thinking she had a tumour, before discovering she was actually pregnant.

The head of the Clinical Hospital in Paraguay said the girl would give birth by caesarean section to avoid complications, reports News.com.

He said 14 girls between the ages of nine and 15 gave birth at the hospital last year “and they all came out fine”.

A judge on Wednesday rejected a request by the girl’s mother to consider to possibility of an abortion.