Stepfather guilty of rape and murder of daughter

GUILTY as charged, is the verdict in the trial of a Mariental area farmworker accused of having raped and murdered his teenaged stepdaughter three years ago.

The judgement that was delivered in the trial of David Kido (49) in the Windhoek High Court yesterday ended with acting judge Boas Usiku convicting Kido of murder, committed with a direct intention to kill, rape, defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and on two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Kido offered a guilty plea only on the charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice when his trial started on 5 October.

In an explanation for that plea, and also in his testimony during the trial, Kido claimed he accidentally killed one of his stepdaughters, Izelda Kock (18), when he hit her on the side of her head with a knobkierie, and that he then tried to conceal the incident by burying her body, burning a bag with clothes belonging to her, and reporting to the police that she had gone missing.

Kock was killed at the farm Jakkalsfontein, situated between Mariental and Gibeon, on 19 September 2013. Police officers found her partly naked body five days later, after Kido had pointed out the place where he had buried her at the farm, where he was employed.

When he pointed out the burial place, Kido also told a police officer that he had strangled Kock and struck her against the head with a piece of iron after he had raped her.

He made similar admissions to another police officer, and also told a traditional healer at Mariental that he had raped and murdered his stepdaughter and then buried her body, acting judge Usiku recounted in his judgement.

Acting judge Usiku found that Kido was not a truthful and credible witness when he testified in his own defence. Kido’s testimony was riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies, he commented, before finding that the evidence Kido gave could not reasonably possibly be true. The state proved its case against Kido beyond reasonable doubt on all of the charges he was facing, acting judge Usiku found.

The two assault charges on which Kido was convicted date from August 2013, and stem from an incident during which Kido assaulted the late Kock and a younger sister of hers by hitting them with a wooden fencing pole.

The presentencing phase of Kido’s trial is due to start tomorrow.

Kido, who has been kept in custody since his arrest in September 2013, is being represented by defence lawyer Titus Mbaeva. State advocate Cliff Lutibezi is prosecuting.

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