Rape shame laid bare

THE abuse started when she was about 12 years old.

For some four years it continued – at home, in her own bed, in a car while her father was supposedly teaching her to drive, even in her parents’ bed; whenever her mother was not at home or present to see what her husband was doing to their daughter. Yesterday, all this came to a head.A Windhoek man accused of sexually abusing his daughter over a four-year period, was sentenced to 15 years in jail.He was convicted on two counts of rape.For four years, his daughter silently endured being sexually abused by her father, Windhoek Regional Court Magistrate Dinnah Usiku heard during the trial of the 39-year-old man who she ordered to be imprisoned yesterday.The man’s daughter remained silent because she loved her father and wanted to protect him.She did not want to bring shame onto her family by revealing what he was doing with her when she was alone with him, the court had heard.The abuse started in 1998, the court heard.It continued until 2002.In that time, the man sexually abused – raped – his daughter so often that she lost count of the incidents.It would happen whenever her mother was not at home, she told the court during testimony at times interrupted by tears.It would happen in her own bedroom, sometimes in her parents’ bed, and sometimes in the car with which her father was teaching her to drive, she related.Sometimes – such as before she was due to write exams or while she was having driving lessons – he told her that she seemed to be nervous or stressed, and that it would help her to relax if he had sex with her, the Magistrate also heard in evidence.The girl’s father denied guilt on both counts that he faced – one a charge that he raped his daughter between 1998 and 2000; the other a count under the Combating of Rape Act, in which it was alleged that he raped the child between 2000 and 2002.Magistrate Usiku rejected his defence, though, commenting that the girl had appeared honest when she testified, and that she did not have any motive to implicate her own father, whom she said she loved.”This is a scar that the child will live with, maybe to take with her to her grave,” Public Prosecutor Uanjengua-ije Tjiuoro told the Magistrate yesterday when addressing her on sentencing.”Our community is becoming sick.The moral fabric of our community is deteriorating,” he remarked.Magistrate Usiku told the man that he had been expected to guide and protect his daughter.Instead he had raped her.”You actually committed a heinous crime by committing rape on your own child.In fact, rape undermines the dignity of the girl child,” she told him.The Magistrate sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment on the first count – for rape under common law between 1998 and 2000 – and to a 15-year jail term on the second count for rape between 2000 and 2002, with three years of the second sentence suspended for five years.The sentences would run separately, with an effective 15-year term to be served, she ordered.Defence lawyer Ivo dos Santos appeared for the accused.He told the court before sentencing that during his client’s 18-month pre-trial detention he had lost not only his liberty, but also his employment, his property, and his wife.She has now divorced him.Yesterday, all this came to a head.A Windhoek man accused of sexually abusing his daughter over a four-year period, was sentenced to 15 years in jail.He was convicted on two counts of rape.For four years, his daughter silently endured being sexually abused by her father, Windhoek Regional Court Magistrate Dinnah Usiku heard during the trial of the 39-year-old man who she ordered to be imprisoned yesterday.The man’s daughter remained silent because she loved her father and wanted to protect him.She did not want to bring shame onto her family by revealing what he was doing with her when she was alone with him, the court had heard.The abuse started in 1998, the court heard.It continued until 2002.In that time, the man sexually abused – raped – his daughter so often that she lost count of the incidents.It would happen whenever her mother was not at home, she told the court during testimony at times interrupted by tears.It would happen in her own bedroom, sometimes in her parents’ bed, and sometimes in the car with which her father was teaching her to drive, she related.Sometimes – such as before she was due to write exams or while she was having driving lessons – he told her that she seemed to be nervous or stressed, and that it would help her to relax if he had sex with her, the Magistrate also heard in evidence.The girl’s father denied guilt on both counts that he faced – one a charge that he raped his daughter between 1998 and 2000; the other a count under the Combating of Rape Act, in which it was alleged that he raped the child between 2000 and 2002.Magistrate Usiku rejected his defence, though, commenting that the girl had appeared honest when she testified, and that she did not have any motive to implicate her own father, whom she said she loved.”This is a scar that the child will live with, maybe to take with her to her grave,” Public Prosecutor Uanjengua-ije Tjiuoro told the Magistrate yesterday when addressing her on sentencing.”Our community is becoming sick.The moral fabric of our community is deteriorating,” he remarked.Magistrate Usiku told the man that he had been expected to guide and protect his daughter.Instead he had raped her.”You actually committed a heinous crime by committing rape on your own child.In fact, rape undermines the dignity of the girl child,” she told him.The Magistrate sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment on the first count – for rape under common law between 1998 and 2000 – and to a 15-year jail term on the second count for rape between 2000 and 2002, with three years of the second sentence suspended for five years.The sentences would run separately, with an effective 15-year term to be served, she ordered.Defence lawyer Ivo dos Santos appeared for the accused.He told the court before sentencing that during his client’s 18-month pre-trial detention he had lost not only his liberty, but also his employment, his property, and his wife.She has now divorced him.