13-year jail term in rape and incest trial

A RESIDENT of the Five Rand Camp settlement near Okahandja was jailed for 13 years this week after he was found guilty in the Windhoek Regional Court on charges of rape and incest.

The man, who was 47 years old at the time of his arrest on January 23 2006, was accused of raping his then 13-year-old daughter on diverse occasions.The child told Magistrate Dinnah Usiku during her father’s trial that he had raped her numerous times, first at a farm where they had been staying east of Okahandja, and then at the house that he had built at Five Rand Camp after he had lost his job at the farm.She could not tell the court the exact dates when these claimed incidents happened.The girl’s father denied the charges against him. He told the Magistrate that the only reason he could think of why his daughter was making such claims against him was because he had beaten her once after she had broken a window at the farm.The court also heard evidence that the girl made the first report that she was being sexually abused by her father to a friend at Five Rand Camp. The friend then encouraged her to report this to their schoolteacher the next day.The girl repeated the same report to the chairperson of the school board, who had been called in by the teacher.When she was taken to be examined by a medical doctor, the doctor suspected that she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease, the Magistrate was also told during the trial.In her judgement in the trial, which was delivered on Monday, Magistrate Usiku recounted that the suspect had claimed that his daughter had been staying at a school hostel at Five Rand Camp. Noting that the child’s teacher, her friend and the school board chairperson had all denied this, she commented that this claim was meant to mislead the court to believe that the suspect did not have an opportunity to commit the crimes he was accused of.Magistrate Usiku commented that it was clear that he would lie just to protect himself. She rejected his defence and convicted him as charged.She took the two charges together for sentencing, and sentenced him to 13 years’ imprisonment.The suspect had been in custody from his arrest until he was granted bail of N$1 000 in June 2006.He was represented by lawyer Johan van Vuuren during the trial. Karin Esterhuizen prosecuted.werner@namibian.com.na