A Duncan Village man who allegedly raped both his girlfriend’s eight-year-old niece in 2016 and her 10-year-old friend next door in 2017, is applying for bail at East London Magistrate’s Court.
The man, 37, cannot be named to protect the identity of the little girls. He is accused of raping the 10-year-old in May 2017 after she had come to play in the home he shared with his girlfriend, his six-year-old daughter and the eight-year-old niece.
The state’s case is that the man sent his child and niece to the shop to buy sweets and ice.
The 10-year-old neighbour was left behind.
He allegedly showed her pornographic material on his phone before raping her and threatened her with death if she told of her ordeal.
The child was raped twice more during that month until the girl’s brother noticed a drastic change in her bubbly behaviour, according to court papers.
This story only came to light in January, when the state was preparing for its case on the eight-year-old, and in the course of this interviewed the niece.
The 10-year-old broke down and revealed that she, too, had been raped twice by the same man.The niece, now 10, told police that her rapes took place while she was doing Grade 3 in 2016, and that she had kept it secret because the man had threatened to kill her. The suspect appeared before bail magistrate Joel Cesar, and said he would plead not guilty to the counts of rape.
Testifying at the beginning of his bail application on Tuesday, the man denied ever raping the niece, or any involvement in the rape of the neighbour’s child.
Cesar on Tuesday postponed his hearing to today, when a police investigator in the matter is expected to testify.
The two cases will now be combined for trial.
It is the state’s case that in November 2016, the man was assisting the niece with her school project when he pushed her to the couch, removed her clothing, and raped her.
According to court papers a few weeks later, while they were alone in their home, the man raped the little girl again and threatened her with death if she told anyone.
In the first incident, the neighbour’s child was taken to social workers when her older brother noticed that she had become withdrawn and hardly spoke to anyone anymore.
The social workers later referred her to the Thuthuzela victim centre at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, where she was examined and declared to have been abused sexually...