JUSTICE was served at the eSikhawini Regional Court on Thursday when a 40-year-old Gobandlovu Reserve man was sentenced to two life imprisonments for raping, impregnating and infecting his stepdaughter with the HIV virus.
The accused had been charged with two counts of rape, despite having allegedely raped the victim on numerous occasions in the absence of the her mother.
In 2010, the man assaulted the victim and her siblings prior to raping her for the second time, resulting in the young girl falling pregnant.
The girl, who was 13 when the sexual abuse started, said in her testimony that every time her mother had gone to Stanger to sell avocados, she would often sleep over and return the next day.
‘My younger siblings and I would remain at home with our stepfather. At night he would leave his bedroom and come to me in the dining room where I slept and he would rape me, and thereafter threaten to kill me or her mother if I reported him,’ said the girl.
In 2012 when her mother, who had suspected she was pregnant, suggested she go for virginity testing, the girl confessed and the incident was reported.
According to reports, when the matter was first addressed the police did not open a case and instead told the child and her mother to rethink their decision as the man was the breadwinner.
After discovering that the child was pregnant and HIV positive, the matter was once again reported to eSikhawini police and the case handed over to the Empangeni Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit for further investigation.
