Father pleads ignorance over twins’ injuries

THE man accused of raping his twin babies and murdering one of the children in the Otjimbingwe area in mid-2007 denied knowing who had injured the two children when he testified in his own defence in the High Court in Windhoek last week.

It so happened that the children sometimes had injuries on them after they had been left in the care of their mother, the children’s father told Judge Naomi Shivute on Thursday. He claimed that when he asked the babies’ mother, who was his girlfriend at the time, what had caused the injuries to the children, she could never give him a satisfactory answer.He was testifying in his own defence in a trial in which he is charged with two counts of rape, a count of murder, and three charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.The man, now 27 years old, is accused of having assaulted the twin babies – a boy and a girl born in January 2007 – between March and June 2007, of having assaulted the children’s mother between March 2006 and June 10 2007, of having raped both children on June 10 2007, and of having murdered the boy by assaulting him on the same date.The boy died in the Usakos State Hospital on June 18 2007. He died of a brain injury, the court has been told.The father, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his surviving daughter, testified on Thursday that he and the twins’ mother had a relationship full of love and care – except when she had been drinking, as she became abusive, violent and prone to using vulgar language towards him then.She was also drinking alcohol while pregnant with the twins, he said.On some occasions when he had left the babies in her care while he was working – he was employed as a livestock herder – he discovered that the children had been injured by the time he returned home, he claimed.He said the mother was never able to tell him what had caused such injuries.He again found injuries, in the form of bite marks, on the babies when he returned home from work on June 9 2007, he claimed. The children’s mother could again not explain the cause of the injuries, but she got angry at him and started swearing at him when he enquired about the marks, he said.He told the court that he wanted to have the children taken to a clinic at Otjimbingwe that day still, but his girlfriend said they were scheduled to go for a medical checkup at the clinic two days later, so they were not taken to the clinic that day already.The suspect is due to continue with his testimony today.He has remained in custody since being arrested on June 14 2007.