‘Rapist’ tells court girl, 15, was a gift from her mother

A 45-year-old Mozambican man yesterday claimed the 15-year-old girl he allegedly held captive in his shack, repeatedly raped and impregnated had been given to him to be his girlfriend by a close relative.

Raul Balele told the High Court in Pretoria that he had sex with the 15-year-old girl “because that was what she came here for”.

The state alleged that shortly before Christmas 2015, Balele had arranged with a relative in Mozambique for the girl to come to South Africa, pretending that he could find work for her.

He paid R1 500 for her transport, but when she arrived in South Africa he told her he had bought her from her mother to be his wife. He then allegedly kept her locked up in his shack and repeatedly raped and assaulted her.

The girl, who became pregnant with Balele’s child because of the alleged sexual abuse, managed to escape in April 2016 and made a report to the police.

Balele testified that his relative had offered the 15-year-old girl to him after he had asked her to find a girlfriend for him and he claimed they had consensual sex.

Balele also flatly denied that he had raped four other young girls, including his former girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter, at Sonop squatter camp near Brits in 2015. He claimed his former girlfriend and her daughter had falsely accused him after he broke up with her.

His former girlfriend earlier testified that she had been woken up in the middle of the night by a strange noise and found Balele naked, with his red underpants around his knees, on top of her completely naked 11-year-old daughter in the process of raping the child.

The girl testified that he had raped her that night and had also raped her and three of her young friends on an earlier occasion.

A doctor who examined the young girl testified that she had new injuries in her genital area and that parts of her genitalia resembled that of a mature woman of child-bearing age.

Balele insisted he “didn’t sleep with anyone”, adding that he owned three pairs of underwear, but none was red.

He has denied guilt to seven charges of child rape and one of human trafficking.

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