‘Stepdad deserves life term for rape’

A MAN who raped his stepdaughter from an early age – usually on Saturday nights after the Lotto results were announced and Sunday mornings while his wife was in church – and eventually impregnated her when she was 14, deserved his life-imprisonment term.

This is according to two judges of the high court in Pretoria, who turned down the man’s appeal against what he deemed a harsh sentence.

Judge Hans Fabricius said there was nothing to be said in favour of the man (he cannot be identified to protect the victim), who has four children.

“He showed no remorse during his trial, although prior to sentencing he handed in a letter which he read to the court, expressing regret.

“He suddenly relied on the possible intervention of a higher being. It is in this instance ironic… that he committed many rapes on a Sunday morning while other people attended church.

“Clearly, at the time, the intervention of the higher being was not important to him,” Judge Fabricius said.

At first, the man vehemently denied that he had raped his stepdaughter over several years. He also initially denied that he was the father of her child.

But when DNA tests revealed that he was the biological father of their little daughter, he suddenly claimed they had consensual sex. He claimed she was the one who initiated the sex.

But the victim told a totally different and heart-rending story. She explained how the 55-yearold touched her indecently since she was about three.

She said he started to rape her since she was 10 – mostly when her mother was asleep or at church.

The down-and-out family, who mostly survived on handouts, lived in a one-bedroom dwelling, and the child testified that her stepfather usually raped her in the bathroom when her mother was asleep.

He also used to send her and her mentally handicapped brother out into the streets to beg for him. Her duty was to beg every Saturday and to bring at least R200 home to him. She and her brother were told to collect money under the pretence that it was for a children’s home.

The child said she never reported the rapes because her stepfather had threatened to kick her out of the house if she told anyone.