Man found guilty of raping daughter
Acquitted of child trafficking
Over a decade later, a man was yesterday found guilty of incest after raping his daughter on numerous occasions.
A 54-year-old man was yesterday found guilty of raping his daughter and incest.
In the Windhoek High Court, Judge Claudia Claasen found that the testimony of the woman who was raped by her father over a decade ago - when she was still underage - was still credible, despite the fact that she withdrew the case at one stage and lied to the police.
The man was, however, acquitted of three charges of child trafficking brought against him by the State following claims that he illegally transported his daughter between Namibia and Angola.
In her ruling, Judge Claasen gave two reasons for this: The incidents took place before legislation under which the man was being charged came into force, and that - at the time - the girl’s parents agreed that she would move from Windhoek to Angola to continue her schooling there.
Claasen also found the man not guilty of a charge of assault by threat due to the fact that evidence contradicted the testimonies of the woman and her mother. Their testimonies also did not align.
The daughter claimed that her father threatened her via SMS in January 2013 - she mentioned this threat in her statement to the police. Her mother, however, testified about a threat that was made during a confrontation in December 2012.
The daughter also testified about this confrontation, but their testimonies offered two different accounts of who the target of the threat was.
Made her his ‘wife’
The woman testified that her father raped her on several occasions between 2010 and 2012. The first time was when she was just 15, while they were on holiday at Jakkalsputz, she said.
She told her aunt in 2012 when she was in Windhoek that her father was 'making her his wife'. She was taken to a psychologist before the news was shared with her mother. A doctor then found that she was pregnant and a legal abortion was performed.
DNA profiling
The chief forensic officer for the Namibian Police Forensic Science Institute, Maryn de Klerk, testified that she did DNA profiling on the placenta and found that there was a 99.996% chance that the man was the baby's father. DNA tests also proved that the chances of the man being the woman’s biological father were 99.986%.
Final pre-sentencing arguments are expected to be made on Wednesday, 23 October.
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In the Windhoek High Court, Judge Claudia Claasen found that the testimony of the woman who was raped by her father over a decade ago - when she was still underage - was still credible, despite the fact that she withdrew the case at one stage and lied to the police.
The man was, however, acquitted of three charges of child trafficking brought against him by the State following claims that he illegally transported his daughter between Namibia and Angola.
In her ruling, Judge Claasen gave two reasons for this: The incidents took place before legislation under which the man was being charged came into force, and that - at the time - the girl’s parents agreed that she would move from Windhoek to Angola to continue her schooling there.
Claasen also found the man not guilty of a charge of assault by threat due to the fact that evidence contradicted the testimonies of the woman and her mother. Their testimonies also did not align.
The daughter claimed that her father threatened her via SMS in January 2013 - she mentioned this threat in her statement to the police. Her mother, however, testified about a threat that was made during a confrontation in December 2012.
The daughter also testified about this confrontation, but their testimonies offered two different accounts of who the target of the threat was.
Made her his ‘wife’
The woman testified that her father raped her on several occasions between 2010 and 2012. The first time was when she was just 15, while they were on holiday at Jakkalsputz, she said.
She told her aunt in 2012 when she was in Windhoek that her father was 'making her his wife'. She was taken to a psychologist before the news was shared with her mother. A doctor then found that she was pregnant and a legal abortion was performed.
DNA profiling
The chief forensic officer for the Namibian Police Forensic Science Institute, Maryn de Klerk, testified that she did DNA profiling on the placenta and found that there was a 99.996% chance that the man was the baby's father. DNA tests also proved that the chances of the man being the woman’s biological father were 99.986%.
Final pre-sentencing arguments are expected to be made on Wednesday, 23 October.
- [email protected]
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