Durban — On Thursday, the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court in handing a life sentence to a 41-year-old father convicted of raping his 13-year-old daughter described the crime as heinous, adding that till now the accused had not shown any remorse.
During the trial, State prosecutor Jenisha Sewbaran through witnesses, including the victim, presented evidence to the court that the man had raped his child for a year before she dared to speak out.
The court heard how the girl was raped from March 2020 to March 2021 and she only told of her ordeal when social workers had come to her school and gave a talk on sexual abuse.
Evidence before the court was that the accused had threatened to kill his daughter if she ousted him.
In her sentencing, Magistrate L Lewis said rape was a scourge nationally and even more so in the Ntuzuma jurisdiction.
“The court can’t give lenient sentences as this will bring the justice system into disrepute and cause society to take the law into its own hands,” she said.
Ahead of sentence, two pre-sentencing reports were handed to the court. These were compiled by a probation officer and a corrections supervision officer who both interviewed the victim.
“From reading these two reports, her (the victim) pain leaps out of the pages. She will live with this hurt for a very long time. She has been moved away from her family and lives in a home for children, she has failed at school and has no social life and it will be hard for her to get some normality into her life. She is the victim but her father’s family has ostracised her. The people who are supposed to love her are blaming her, her father appears to be an instigator. This child’s future is in jeopardy.”
Lewis said as a father the accused was supposed to love and protect his daughter.
“But he raped her for a year, he would not have stopped if the victim had not found the courage to speak up… What a heinous crime to be raped by your father.”
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