REUTERS. Kleinmond, South Africa - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker’s penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.

“Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time,” Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex," a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.

Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.

Ehlers said the “rapex” hooks onto the rapist’s skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.

“He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage,” Ehlers told reporters in Kleinmond, a small village about 60 miles east of Cape Town. “I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital.”

The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.

It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

PICS HERE: RAPEX website

As you can imagine, this is causing ripples of controversy across feminist groups, human rights groups and law enforcement professionals.

I've not yet made up my mind. I do think that this is something that might actually deter rapists, much more so than the threat of a prison sentance or other legalities. I also like the fact that once it hooks in, it can only be removed through surgery, and therefore will always identify a perpetrator of a sex crime.

Critics are saying that it will enrage the attacker and lead to a more violent attack or murder for the intended victim; also that it will just lead to more anal rapes and not be any kind of deterrant. Plus the usual barbaric, blah blah.

In my opinion, rape is barbaric.

¶ 1:27 PM