Johannesburg - The doctor who initially examined the young woman who accused her stepfather of raping her when she was seven years old has said there was medical evidence that proved she had been sexually assaulted.
The trial of the police officer accused of raping his stepdaughter began last week, with the State getting ready to wrap up its case on Monday.
Gabriella*, now 17, testified that when she was in Grade 1, he forced her to touch and kiss his genitals on multiple occasions, and eventually raped her while her mother was in hospital. But she reported the incidents to her mother only nearly four years later, in 2009, claiming she was too afraid of her aggressive stepfather’s reaction towards her mother and herself.
On Thursday, Dr Vajjnah Mahomed described the day when Gabriella and her mother arrived at the Thuthuzela Care Centre in KwaZulu-Natal for an examination in 2009. Mahomed told the court that the then 11-year-old girl was highly anxious and quiet during the examination, which revealed vaginal tearing still visible four years after the alleged crimes.
“Being an 11-year-old child, having injuries in her hymen, it shows that there was force,” Mahomed told the high court sitting in Palm Ridge.
She said that because the injuries were not unilateral, it suggested that it was a penis, rather than an object or finger, that caused the damage.
Defence lawyer JD Pretorius argued that in Mahomed’s report, she had only indicated “possible penetration”, but the doctor insisted this was the nature of how reports are written if the examinations take place more than 72 hours after a rape.
“I put it to you that this is not the truth,” Pretorius told Mahomed, who mentioned that the tears were not properly diagrammed on her medical report. He argued that the injuries could have been caused by a tampon, a vibrator or even a finger if the 11-year-old had been masturbating.
But Mahomed insisted that while it was possible, the girl was not menstruating, and that if she had been masturbating, the sensitivity of the hymen meant she would have been unlikely to hurt herself.
“I put it to you that you can’t be certain a penis was used,” Pretorius said.
The trial continues on Monday.