The Free State High Court has thrown out a bid for freedom by a man who raped his own pregnant teenage daughter.
The rapist, who we cannot name to protect the identity of his victim, was sentenced to life in prison by the Ladybrand Regional Court in September 2017 after he was found guilty of the shocking crime.
He however lodged an appeal against both conviction and sentence.
In the appeal matter heard on 6 February this year at the High Court in Bloemfontein, the appellant argued that the trial court had wrongly convicted him on the basis of evidence from a single witness, being the complainant herself.
He also claimed that the trial magistrate had erred in dismissing his version of an alibi – he testified that he was somewhere else with other people when the crime was allegedly committed.
The complainant was 17 years old and pregnant at the time she was allegedly raped.
In her testimony before the Ladybrand Regional Court, she said her father, aged 35 at the time, entered her room, got into her bed with her and told her about a custom which he claimed the complainant’s mother had also gone through – that a father would have intercourse with his pregnant daughter in order to make the process of her giving birth easier.
Although she disagreed with this, the father proceeded to undress his daughter’s lower body and have sex with her.
The man took a break to go to the toilet and then returned and resumed the intercourse.
Afterwards, he fell asleep.
The daughter then sent a message to her mother via WhatsApp to inquire about the custom she had been told about.
Although she did not give her consent to the sexual intercourse, she did not message her mother about the rape.
The following morning, she went to her boyfriend’s mother and told her that she had been raped by her father.
The boyfriend’s mother gave evidence during the trial and testified that the complainant was shaking and crying at the time when she made the report.
The trial magistrate observed that the conduct of the man was particularly reprehensible since the victim was his daughter, aged 17 and pregnant.
The trial court found him guilty and could not find any reason to deviate from the minimum sentence.
After hearing the appeal case, Judge Phillip Loubser in his judgment, handed down on 2 March, said he was in full agreement with the findings of the trial magistrate in respect of the sentence.
“In any event, in appeals against sentence, an appeal court is not free to interfere with the discretion exercised by the sentencing officer, unless the discretion was tainted with a material misdirection or where the sentence is so disproportionate to the crime, the personal circumstances of the offender and the interests of society, that it induces a sense of shock,” he said.
“These principles have already become trite law in the approach to sentences imposed. I cannot find that any of the factors mentioned are present in this appeal.”
Consequently, the judge dismissed the appeal against conviction and sentence. – Staff Reporter