Gran ‘admitted’ tying up and burning toddler

A CHATSWORTH woman admitted tying her 3-year-old granddaughter to a bed, burning her on parts of her body and denying her medical treatment, the Durban High Court has heard.

“I am sorry for being a bad granny… I was scared that if I asked people to help, they would have reported me to police,” the grandmother conceded to a policeman.

The 55-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter are facing a range of charges, including murder and child abuse.

They have have pleaded not guilty to all the charges before Judge Mohini Moodley.

They cannot be named because two of the complainants are the younger woman’s other minor children.

At the start of the trial on Monday, the State said it would demonstrate the “brutal and callous” manner in which both accused “perpetrated vile and unimaginable acts of abuse on a defenceless and voiceless child”.

The court heard that while the policeman, Captain VC Starbuck of Lamontville SAPS, was noting the confession of the granny on November 23, 2014, she broke down.

The confession was not disputed by her attorney, TP Pillay of Legal Aid South Africa.

The woman admitted to burning the girl close to her ears and injuring her under her arm and on her neck.

She claimed she tied the child to a bed to stop her from banging her head on the wall and not to disturb neighbours in the attached building.

But the granny denied killing the child.

She blamed her daughter for the child banging her head, saying her co-accused had been hooked on drugs before and after the child was born.

“I tied her (the child) up by her right arm and over her legs with a blanket. I did not tie her left arm because she used to suck her left thumb. I gave her the privilege to suck her left thumb,” the confession read.

The dead child’s mother, who is being represented by advocate Murray Pitman and attorney Ajith Severaj, said she was not present when her 3-year-old died.

But she said she remembered slapping her 9-year-old son once on his shoulder after he called her a “b****”.

She also said that when her son and 7-year-old daughter were burnt by the iron, it had fallen on them after they were playing near the ironing board.

Advocates Cheryl Naidu and Kalvin Singh are leading the State’s case.

In a preamble to the State’s case, Singh said the constitution had “at the heart of its purpose” the protection of vulnerable groups of society.

“The protection of children is at the epicentre of these valuable rights. Section 28 (2) of the constitution states that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child,” he said.

“In addition, section 11 of the constitution guarantees every person in South Africa the right to life. The dead child, the subject matter in this trial, was only 3 years old at the time of her untimely death,” Singh said.

“The dead child will be given a voice in this court not only through her injuries but also via the evidence of her siblings, both of whom who were also subjected to abuse at the hands of both accused.”

(Proceeding).