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Namibia: 21-Year Prison Term for Father Accused of Raping His Daughter
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
10 April 2008
Posted to the web 10 April 2008
Werner Menges
Windhoek
A 43-year-old former Windhoek resident accused of rape and incest faces a 21-year stint behind bars after he was sentenced in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday.
The man was accused of raping his 17-year-old daughter in Windhoek on January 17 2004.
During his trial he told Magistrate Dinnah Usiku that he was employed at a security services company in Windhoek at the time of the alleged incident on which he stood trial.
He told the Magistrate yesterday that he had since moved to Katima Mulilo, where he has been looking for employment.
The man denied the charges when his trial started in the Windhoek Regional Court on February 5 last year.
In the judgement she delivered yesterday, Magistrate Usiku recounted that the man's daughter told the court that she was visiting him during the year-end holidays at the end of 2003.
She was actually living with her mother in another town, and did not really know her father before visiting him during those holidays, the girl indicated.
In the days before the alleged incident, her father had started touching her and also kissed her indecently, the court heard.
On January 17 2004, the girl's stepmother - the wife of the girl's father - left their house to go and buy food, the girl testified.
After her stepmother had left the house, her father grabbed her by her neck and started playing with her breasts, the girl related.
He then closed the door and windows of the house, returned to his daughter and again fondled her breasts, she told the court.
Next he asked her to sit on a bed and to give him something, Magistrate Usiku recounted the testimony.
When the girl asked her father what she was supposed to give him, he overpowered her, pinned her down on the bed and raped her, the court heard.
The girl reported the incident to her sister later that day.
According to the sister, who also testified, the girl was in tears, the Magistrate further recounted.
The two girls went on to report the incident to a cousin, who advised them to report it to the Police, which they then did.
When the girl was medically examined, a doctor found signs of recent sexual activity, and observed that she was bleeding, although "minimally", from her private parts.
The man denied all the claims.
He told the Magistrate that his daughter had demanded N$2 000 from him, and also told him she would withdraw the charge against him if he paid her this money.
He further claimed that the girl's mother had incited her to make the allegations.
Magistrate Usiku noted, however, that when he had the opportunity to cross-examine her, the father never mentioned the claimed issue of the money.
Noting the medical evidence before the court, evidence about the girl having reported that her father had raped her on the same day that the incident was claimed to have taken place, and the fact that witnesses told the court that she was in tears when she made these reports, Magistrate Usiku said the evidence was consistent with the girl's claims of rape.
She added that it was highly unlikely that the girl's mother would have arranged all the events that happened to the girl so that charges could be laid against the suspect.
She further reasoned that the girl had no reason to lie about a sexual encounter between herself and her father, "as that would bring shame to her family and herself, if found out".
During the trial it became evident that the accused was not a reliable witness, the Magistrate added. She concluded that she was satisfied that the prosecution had proved its case.
She told him during the sentencing that he had betrayed the trust placed in him with regard to his daughter.
"There is no doubt that the complainant in this case will have to live with the ugly scar of having been raped by her own father," Magistrate Usiku commented.
She remarked that from having observed the girl when she testified, there was no doubt that she had been badly traumatised.
Magistrate Usiku added that she could find no substantial and compelling circumstances that would warrant a sentence lighter than the 15 years' imprisonment prescribed by the Combating of Rape Act for this sort of rape.
In fact, the man deserved an even heavier sentence, the Magistrate indicated, sentencing him to an 18-year jail term on the rape charge and a three-year term, which she ordered should be served consecutively with the other term, on the incest charge.
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Public Prosecutor Brownwell Uirab presented the prosecution's case. The suspect represented himself without assistance from a lawyer.
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