Father Rapes Two Daughters

Sharon Mathala | Monday August 4, 2014 17:17

The magistrate court had sentenced Kemoiponetse Mosweu to 20 years imprisonment for charges of incest and rape of his 13 and 14-year-old daughters.

Dismissing his appeal, Justice Lord Arthur Hamilton, said that Mosweu who had pleaded not guilty to the charges did not deny that the two children were his own. He stated that although Mosweu had submitted to the CoA that the girls’ testimonies were inconsistent, critical issues in their testimonies were in each case ‘internally consistent’.

“The testimony of the girls, who were crucially speaking to separate events as the acts of intercourse with each of them were on different occasions, was not in every respect consistent.  There were some differences as to how many huts there were in the yard and about the sleeping arrangements, but on the critical testimonies they were in each case consistent,” he said.

Hamilton further ruled against Mosweu saying that although his 13-year-old daughter reported the incident to her aunt immediately and that the other did not for fear of her father was dully accepted by the court.

“The medical witness testified that the discharge, which was found in each of the girls after examination were similar to those of their father.  In the absence of any suggestion that any other male had access to these young girls, it is reasonable inference that they were infected by sexual contact with their father,” he said.

Mosweu was previously charged with having committed incest on his three daughters.  He was then acquitted of the other count in respect of the eldest daughter on the grounds that the Magistrate was not satisfied that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that he had sexual relations with her.

Mosweu who was 66 years of age at the time he committed the crimes was convicted of incest on his other two daughters.

He was sentenced on each of these counts to 10 years imprisonment of which two years were suspended on condition that he did not commit a similar offence.  The sentences were made to run concurrently.

The mother of the three children had died years before and by the time the man committed the offences only the two youngest girls lived with their father and slept together in a single thatched hut.

The youngest sister had testified that on one occasion in July 2008, while sleeping in their hut, her father came to her and had sex with her. She told the court that he had not spoken to her in advance of penetrating her. She told the court that although it was after dark, the moonlight was shining down through the doorway, which enabled her to recognise her father.

She said that after completing the act her father went to his own blankets whilst her other sister had remained asleep in the hut throughout the act.

She said that in the morning she left their home without notifying her father and reported to her aunt what had happened.