A child of seven yesterday demonstrated with dolls in the East London High court how she was raped twice.
The child told Judge Murray Lowe that last June she was raped in her home at Zozo Location, Kwelera.
The man accused of the crime pleaded not guilty. He cannot be named as they lived in the same house and this could identify her.
Prosecuting state advocate Zukile Mdolomba led the girl through her testimony with the aid of an intermediary in a different room.
Her testimony was watched on a television screen.
“My mother’s bed is not big enough for all of us and she often says we are going to press against the baby and then she tells us to go sleep in the other room with bhuti (brother),” the girl testified.
She told the court that she was raped twice, on Thursday and Friday night, respectively.
She said the accused fetched her from her mother’s room and took her to his bedroom. She said he took off her skirt and her panties. The little girl then whispered to the intermediary that the accused climbed on top of her and raped her.
She said the rape happened in front of her eight-year-old cousin who was also sharing a bed with them, but the cousin was asleep.
She told the court that the next day she got ready for school without telling anyone what happened.
Asked by Mdolomba why she did not tell her teacher, the girl said: “I did not want to say such big things at school.”
That evening the accused again fetched her from her mother’s room and took her to his bedroom.
With the use of dolls, male and female, she demonstrated how the accused undressed her and himself. She showed the male doll lying on its back and the female doll seated on the male doll while being held in place around the waist.
Defence attorney Hendrik Erasmus has argued that the accused will say that a 12-year-old boy could have hurt her, not his client.
In cross-examination Erasmus asked the girl about the 12-year-old boy but she said that while she knew him, they never played together.
Erasmus put it to the girl that the only reason she did not tell anyone that the accused raped her was that he did not hurt her.
The child could not answer and court proceedings were adjourned. The trial resumes today. — siyab@dispatch.co.za
Girl, 7, uses dolls to tell court how she was raped
The child told Judge Murray Lowe that last June she was raped in her home at Zozo Location, Kwelera.
The man accused of the crime pleaded not guilty. He cannot be named as they lived in the same house and this could identify her.
Prosecuting state advocate Zukile Mdolomba led the girl through her testimony with the aid of an intermediary in a different room.
Her testimony was watched on a television screen.
“My mother’s bed is not big enough for all of us and she often says we are going to press against the baby and then she tells us to go sleep in the other room with bhuti (brother),” the girl testified.
She told the court that she was raped twice, on Thursday and Friday night, respectively.
She said the accused fetched her from her mother’s room and took her to his bedroom. She said he took off her skirt and her panties. The little girl then whispered to the intermediary that the accused climbed on top of her and raped her.
She said the rape happened in front of her eight-year-old cousin who was also sharing a bed with them, but the cousin was asleep.
She told the court that the next day she got ready for school without telling anyone what happened.
Asked by Mdolomba why she did not tell her teacher, the girl said: “I did not want to say such big things at school.”
That evening the accused again fetched her from her mother’s room and took her to his bedroom.
With the use of dolls, male and female, she demonstrated how the accused undressed her and himself. She showed the male doll lying on its back and the female doll seated on the male doll while being held in place around the waist.
Defence attorney Hendrik Erasmus has argued that the accused will say that a 12-year-old boy could have hurt her, not his client.
In cross-examination Erasmus asked the girl about the 12-year-old boy but she said that while she knew him, they never played together.
Erasmus put it to the girl that the only reason she did not tell anyone that the accused raped her was that he did not hurt her.
The child could not answer and court proceedings were adjourned. The trial resumes today. — siyab@dispatch.co.za
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