Baby X aunt: ‘It was because I was scared’

Published Jul 30, 2016

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Durban - A three-year-old who was prone to tantrums was demon possessed.

That’s according to the toddler’s grandmother who, with her mother, is standing trial for killing her in 2014, the Durban High Court heard on Friday.

The trial has shocked Chatsworth and Shallcross residents who have turned out at the building to protest every day since Monday. Some of the hearings were held in camera because her siblings were giving evidence.

The court has heard that Baby X, as she is called to protect the identities of her siblings, was banged on the head and had curry powder put in her nappy as part of her toilet training during her short life.

She died from blunt head trauma.

On Friday, the child’s aunt said her mother - Baby X’s grandmother - believed the little one whose mother (the aunt’s sister) took drugs during her pregnancy, was possessed by demons.

Baby X’s 31-year-old mother, along with her 51-year-old grandmother, have pleaded not guilty to killing the child on November 19, 2014, as well as to charges of child abuse, assault and sexual assault against the little girl’s two siblings, now 9 and 12 years old.

The aunt confirmed the demon beliefs while facing cross-examination from Murray Pittman, Baby X’s mother’s defence counsel.

“My mother (Baby X’s grandmother) believed that. I heard her say it,” she said.

“I can’t say she loved her. She even told me I don’t like (Baby X) because she is possessed by the devil”.

The aunt said her much-feared mother was so vicious in the way she kept control of the home, she had once even attempted suicide. “I swallowed tablets in 2010,”she told Judge Mohini Moodley.

The aunt said when her mother became angry she would scream, swear and even assault her adult daughters.

Her mother would not allow her or her sister, to interfere with the way she brought up Baby X and her siblings, which included hitting them.

“That’s why I kept quiet.” Her mother had taken her sister’s children into her foster care and received R700 a month per child as a grant, for doing so, she said.

The aunt said, when asked by police to submit a statement shortly after the death, she failed to mention things, such as her mother banging Baby X’s head and putting curry powder in her nappy. “At times it was very scary to speak about. It was not to protect her. It was because I was scared. It was all about fear and loyalty,” she replied to her mother’s defence counsel, TP Pillay.

The trial resumes on Monday.

Independent on Saturday

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