A 43 year old man ruffled feathers in court after he claimed he was in love with a 11-year-old girl whom he impregnated.
And while the man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, claimed throughout his testimony that the sex had been consensual, with the child a willing participant, acting judge Michelle Beneke said his version was so improbable it could not even be considered as true.
Handing down her judgment, Beneke said in SA law a child under the age of 12 — be it a boy or a girl — was incapable of consenting to any sexual act.
She said further the fact that the man, in his testimony, had said he knew what he had done was wrong proved he knew the consequences and the illegality of his repeated actions.
The man admitted he had sex with the child for the first time four days before her 11th birthday at his home on a farm near Oyster Bay, but claimed it was the child who had initiated it.
However, Beneke said it could not reasonably possibly be true that the girl, who regarded the man as a father figure, would see him as an object of sexual desire.
The man had been in a relationship with the girl’s mother from when she was about three years old.
He was arrested and charged with the mother’s murder in December 2012 after she died from injuries sustained during a drunken brawl between the two.
He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for culpable homicide.
In her testimony the child said during the time she lived with the man before his incarceration he had never touched her inappropriately or hurt her.
It was only after he was paroled in January 2020 that the sexual assaults had begun.
According to the child, the man had forced her to have sex with him on numerous occasions and had told her not to tell anyone about it.
She said she had been too scared to tell anyone about the abuse because she knew what had happened to her mother.
The truth emerged when the child returned to school in July 2020 and a teacher noticed her stomach was growing.
A pregnancy test later revealed the girl pregnant. The man was subsequently arrested and charged.
Source: Opera News
