Rape-accused doctor also ‘slept with sister, family dog’

A 58-year-old real estate agent and property owner yesterday vehemently denied having stimulated her grandson’s penis to the point that the child had to be rushed to a local private hospital.

She also denied having stood guard while her son, a 36-year-old local medical doctor, allegedly fed his seven-year-old son a pill ‘with a lot of sweets that made me sick to my tummy’ before raping him in his car on the child’s school premises.

Instead, the grandmother insisted that her ex-daughter-in-law, the minor’s mother, has her knife out for the older woman because she cannot stand her’ and ‘wants her child for herself’.

The older woman stands accused of being an accomplice to her son’s crimes. The duo, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, appeared in a joint bail hearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Placed with a predator

Advocate Seredine Jacobs, representing the State, asked the grandmother whether she was really convinced that the police would remove a child from her custody just because of a ‘minor molestation rumour’ and because his mother did not like her.

"Is it true that, in fact, you were standing guard while your son was raping his son? He [the child] also said that you played with his [penis] so much that he had to go to Lady Pohamba [Private Hospital] because his [penis] was so swollen.

"The child was taken from the custody of his mother and placed with a predator," she put it to the accused.

Incest, bestiality ‘just a joke’

The woman - who confirmed that her son confided in her and his father that he was molested by his cousin when he was a child himself - also had no response when the court asked her whether she was aware that her son allegedly confessed to having had sex with his sister and a dog.

According to the prosecution, the accused doctor confirmed this, claiming they had acted out a scene in a video game, but that it was just a joke.

The rape-accused man’s mother, however, told the court that her ex-daughter-in-law fabricated these lies because she did not like their family. The reason? They are rich. Instead, she ‘wanted her child for herself’, the older woman claimed.

The grandmother could only recall one incident in which the mother inferred that her child was raped, and no other incidents where a direct accusation was made, despite insisting that her ex-daughter-in-law had a personal vendetta against her.

Jacobs reminded the older woman that the allegations of rape and molestation did not come from the child’s mother, but rather the boy himself.

She read a sworn testimony by social worker Maria Richter, who gave an account of her interaction with the child. “I found he could clearly point [to] his body parts and called his penis ‘tollie’ and his buttocks his ‘bum’. When I asked whether he had ever been given a bad touch, the child responded that ‘Ouma and Dadda touched my bum before. Dadda gives me a sweet [that] has a lot of sugar in it and it would make me sick [to my stomach] and my head would pain’.”

‘Dadda made me sore’

Jacobs also asked the grandmother whether it was true that she and her son went to the child’s school on 1 February this year, where the father allegedly fed the child this ‘sweet’ and took him to his car to fondle his buttocks and penis.

The child reportedly told the social worker that “it was not a nice play because Dadda made me sore”, adding: “Ouma was also at the school and stood outside the car”.

The man - a doctor formerly affiliated with the Katutura State Hospital’s gender-based violence unit, where he regularly dealt with rape victims - allegedly fed his child this ‘sweet’ numerous times.

Traumatised

Last week, Namibian Sun reported that the man reportedly started raping his son when the boy was only a few months old, prompting his wife’s suspicion. This was after she had noticed sores around the baby’s anus. She immediately suggested that cameras be installed in the house in order to catch the perpetrator. Her husband allegedly rejected the idea, and started accusing her of being a ‘drug addict’ who was imagining things.

With the woman not backing down from the idea of installing cameras, the man allegedly moved out of their home. Soon after, the couple started divorce proceedings, with the man insisting on getting custody of their son.

In court yesterday, the older woman said she never asked her son why he moved out of the house he once shared with his ex-wife because she was so traumatised by the circumstances and the allegations.

"He told me about the allegations and that he was not allowed to have a spontaneous relationship with his child. He also said it is not going well and that he is not allowed to be a father, and that there are these molestation allegations. She [the child's mother] was suspicious about rashes [around the boy’s anus]. There were lots of incidents, but what I know is she took the child for an anal examination. That was after the father had moved out. I did not believe it [the allegations]," she said.

She confirmed that her son arrived at her home in 2019 with his child in the company of a social worker and the police, but dismissed the prosecution's claim that he had forcefully removed the child from his mother's place of work.

The two accused are represented by Sisa Namandje, who objected to the term ‘forcefully removed’.

He further pointed out that the court is not allowed to use secondary evidence, in light of the report by Richter implicating the father and grandmother in the sex crimes.

"The State is placing a lot of inadmissible evidence in court that might be used against my client at trial. If this witness [social worker] gives a statement, she must wait until she is in court and when she is there, she can present that report," he said.

[email protected]