Cape Town – “Abuse is already in my blood, I’m used to it.”
This is how a 14-year-old rape survivor described her ordeal in court papers before the Western Cape High Court, where her father was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for repeatedly raping her from when she was a 6-year-old.
The 56-year-old Wolseley father was also sentenced on seven other counts, including child abuse and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
He had physically and psychologically abused his three minor children since 2012, when his youngest child was a 2-year-old.
Western Cape High Court Judge Rosheni Allie said the father, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his minor children, repeatedly raped his then 6-year-old daughter for seven years knowing that he was HIV-positive.
His 12-year-old son told social workers he felt helpless and emotionally out of control when their father abused him and his siblings.
The youngest, a 10-year-old girl, also endured physical abuse from the age of two.
The 14-year-old rape survivor had trust issues and was fearful of men, according to court papers.
She recalled threats made by her father, that he would mutilate her and sell her body parts. The minor had told the social worker she had nightmares about what her father did to her.
“She struggles to express her emotion in a constructive way,” the court papers read. “She felt dirty and had a distorted concept of herself.”
The 12-year-old told the social worker that, as punishment, their father used to rub a plant on them that would make their bodies itch.
“From the information gathered, the alleged offence had a major impact on the social functioning of the child,” read the papers.
“I feel sad and scared, like he is going to hit me,” the 10-year-old had told the social worker.
The three children said their paternal family had not helped them. The son said their father’s family blamed them for the abuse they endured for years.
They had, however, expressed their desire to return to Wolseley as they missed their friends, but they could not return because their father’s family did not want them.
“Many children suffer low self-esteem and feelings of guilt, often blaming themselves for the abuse,” read the papers.
“The accused took advantage of the relationship of trust he initially had with his minor children, and went to extremely violent lengths to punish his three minor children without any justification for doing so.”