Johannesburg -
A judge described the severe abuse of a 13-month-old girl over a period of three months and her subsequent rape by her mother’s boyfriend as horrific and despicable.
Judge Natvarlal Ranchod, sitting in the high court in Pretoria, said the defenceless baby looked up to her mother to protect her. Instead, she had to endure months of hell.
He turned down the appeal by the child’s biological mother against her effective 20-year jail sentence.
He also rejected the appeal of her boyfriend against his effective life imprisonment sentence.
The mother at first also wanted to appeal against her conviction of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and that she neglected to attend to her baby’s injuries.
She later decided against this but to only appeal against her conviction on being an accessory to rape.
However, the boyfriend insisted he had done nothing wrong and appealed both his convictions, which included rape.
It also appeared that the child’s grandmother was involved as she knew her daughter was abusing the child, but chose to lie to the authorities to protect her daughter.
The accused, only identified in the appeal judgment as JR (mother) and WAN (the boyfriend) were sentenced in the Heidelberg Regional Court. JR lived with her mother, together with her boyfriend and the child.
The first sign that something was wrong with the child, was when the girl developed blue spots on her face on June 20, 2010.
Nothing was done about this, but she was taken to a doctor when new spots appeared on her back a few days later.
Blood was drawn and while the mother was waiting for the results, she rushed the child back two days later as the baby “started bleeding profusely from her private parts, while the mother was bathing her”.
This was, however, a cover-up as agreed by the mother and her boyfriend. The child in fact started bleeding when the boyfriend raped her, while the mother was preparing the baby’s milk in the kitchen. A specialist found the injuries to be so severe that he had to perform an emergency operation to the torn private parts. She also had to receive a blood transfusion to save her life.
Pretoria News