The Herald (Zimbabwe)

10 years jail for an ‘evil’ husband

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The Rhodesia Herald,

26 January 1974

AN “evil man” who held down his wife while three other men raped her, has been gaoled for 10 years.

The man’s wife was dragged screaming and struggling to a bedroom where three aircraftsm­en “like beasts pleasured themselves upon her”.

And in her agony, the woman, a mother of two small sons cried out: “Get these animals off me.”

The men were invited to the multi-rape by RAF Sergeant William Morgan (37).

Morgan was told by the judge: “You stand disgraced as a husband and father.”

The Stafford Crown Court was told that Morgan, stationed at RAF Cosford, Staffordsh­ire, picked up the three aircraftsm­en, who were complete strangers to him, after a social event.

He took them to his married quarters and encouraged them to have intercours­e with his wife Daphne (34).

And when they had finished, the sergeant also had sex with her.

The three aircraftsm­en — Robert McDonald (21), Michael Parker (20) and Robert McLarty (26) were each found guilty of rape and gaoled for four years.

Mrs Morgan admitted that she had two love affairs with other men and had once taken part in wife- swopping, which she claimed had disgusted her.

Morgan said that no force was used and his wife had only become upset when she realised one of the men did not use a contracept­ive.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

◆It’s one thing to be sexually assaulted by people you know or total strangers, but quite another if your husband invites total strangers to molest his wife while he watches and derives pleasure from the sadistic act.

◆ The sexual assault in the piece above was meant to cause bodily harm and lasting trauma. The husband was supposed to have received a deterrent sentence and not the 10 years he got. The mother of two was left with permanent scars that cannot be easily treated.

◆ The assault shows a legal system that did not sympathise with the victim. The sentence was not good enough and should have been challenged in a higher court. ◆ There is an increase in rape cases

around the country. For those sexual crimes, “the most serious of which are rape and aggravated indecent assault, both of which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonme­nt.”

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