Son Convicted Of Raping Own Mother Twice
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday August 24, 2020 12:53
The gory details of how a then 31-year-old man of Gumare village raped his then 47-year-old mother at Gumare in the North West District of Botswana in 2017 emerged at the Francistown High Court much to the dismay of the court audience.
In the first count, the accused, unnamed for legal reasons, was convicted of raping his mother at around 11pm near a cemetery in Gumare on September 6, 2017.
The man was also found guilty of raping his mother inside her bedroom in Gumare on September 7, 2017 at their homestead.
The matter was then referred to Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo because the magistrate who presided over the case at the lower court did not have powers to mete out a heavy sentence for a longer prison term.
Passing judgement, Nyamadzabo said that the complainant told the court that she was a mother of five children including the accused.
Nyamadzabo said that the complainant told the lower court that on September 5, 2017, her son told her that he was not feeling well and she promised him that she would find someone to help him.
The mother at the time, Nyamadzabo added, had not found the traditional doctor who was to assist her son.
Nyamadzabo continued, according to the complainant, at around 11pm on September 6, 2017, the accused visited her and told her that he had found a traditional doctor who could help him. “The son then told his mother that they should consult with the traditional doctor at once. The mother suggested that they should hire a taxi to take them to the residence of the traditional doctor, but her son told her that he would fix the tyre of his bakkie that was parked within their yard, which they would use for travelling… The accused and his mother later left to consult the traditional doctor. When they were about to reach the graveyard, the accused stopped the car and alighted from it leaving his mother inside. While he was outside the car, he pretended that he was communicating with someone using his mobile phone,” Nyamadzabo said.
Nyamadzabo then added that according to the record of proceedings from the lower court, after the accused returned to the car, he told his mother that the traditional doctor has told him that they should keep on driving along the road and they would see some candle lights since he was busy helping one of his patients.
“The accused and his mother kept on driving along the road, but they did not see the candle lights. The complainant then became suspicious that her son was planning to kill her… The accused then told his mother that he saw some tracks on the ground, which were a sign that they were near the doctor. The mother then started to complain because she did not understand what was happening. The accused then stopped the car,” said Nyamadzabo.
Nyamadzabo then quoted verbatim what the accused told his mother after he stopped the car. Nyamadzabo said the accused told his mother: “Mother I did not bring you here for nothing. I brought you here because I have a problem that I can’t tell you at home. I was told by a traditional doctor that if I want to solve my problems, I should have sex with you.” Nyamadzabo said that the accused’s mother then told her son that what he was
planning to do was not good, but he threatened to kill her.
“The accused took some metallic objects from the car threatening to kill his mother… he then came to the side where his mother was sitting in the car and pulled her outside the car. He instructed her to go to the back of the bakkie and she obliged.
The accused then undressed his mother before proceeding to have sexual intercourse with her. He told his mother that he was having sex with her in order to cleanse her. After the accused finished having sex with his mother, he gave her a bottle of water and ordered her to wash her private parts. The complainant obliged and they then returned to their yard to sleep in their different rooms,” Nyamadzabo said. The complainant told the court that she spent the following day contemplating if she should report what she experienced the previous day, but she had doubts if she had a strong case because she had destroyed evidence after the accused told her to wash her private parts, Nyamadzabo narrated.
“She also stated that she was enveloped by shock and fear to report what happened to her and spent the whole day not knowing what to do. On September 7, 2017, the complainant told the lower court as if what happened to her the previous day was not enough, the accused knocked at her door around 11pm and told her that he did not manage to totally cleanse her the previous day and begged his mother to open the door for him.”
“The victim told her son that she did not want to… The accused then changed tact and told his mother that he was borrowing an electric kettle. She said that although she was reluctant to open the door for the accused, she opened it because she could hear the voices of some people speaking near the room of the accused. She said that after she opened the door, the accused rushed inside her bedroom and then dragged her to the bed whereupon he had sexual intercourse with her again without her consent,” Nyamadzabo said.
Nyamadzabo continued: “The complainant told the court that she did not scream because she was in great fear coupled with the fact that the accused had throttled her neck. She also said that she had a fear that her other children would wake up and witness what was happening to her, which would negatively affect them in life since in the Setswana culture, it is unheard of for children to have sex with their parents… The victim also told the court that this time around, the accused forcefully had sex with her for a long period and even slept in her bedroom.”
The court was once again left in utter disbelief after Nyamadzabo read in verbatim what the accused told his mother after he had sex with her for a second time.
Nyamadzabo stated that the accused said: “Mother I want us now to be involved in a love relationship.” The complainant, Nyamadzabo narrated, managed to escape from her room after tricking the accused into believing that she was going to take an electric kettle from another room to wash her private privates after he instructed her to wash them again. “She escaped from her room around 4:30am and reported the matter to the police which led to the arrest of the accused… When the matter came to court for Initial Case Management Conference (ICMC), the accused said he accepted that he raped his mother but later changed his statement during trial because he said that he did not want to feel as if he was insulting his mother during ICMC by revealing that they were in love,” Nyamadzabo said.
“However, the complainant denied ever having consensual sex with her son. She also denied that she started having a love relationship with her son when he was doing Standard 7 in 2007… He even said that his mother was jealous and barred him from going to entertainment places and she even admonished him for falling in love with his age mates. His mother denied those claims,” Nyamadzabo said.
The court also heard that before the commencement of the accused’s trial, a Clinical Psychologist found that he was fit to stand trial and also made an order that he undergoes counselling sessions since the offence he allegedly committed was weird.
Towards the end of his judgement, Nyamadzabo ruled that the accused was not worthy of being believed because he contradicted himself on numerous occasions.
“The accused contradicted himself when he told the court during trial that he started having sex with his mother on September 6, 2017, the very same day that his mother said he started to rape her forgetting that he had earlier told the court that he started having sex with his mother in 2007 when he was doing Standard 7. I find the victim to be a credible witness.
This is so because her evidence was corroborated by other witnesses including the evidence of the forensic expert who said that the DNA found in the complainant’s private parts matched the blood sample that was extracted from the accused for forensic analysis,” Nyamadzabo said, adding that he therefore upholds the two rape convictions that were passed by the lower court. The accused would be sentenced on October 28, 2020. Nyamadzabo made an order that he be fingerprinted to check for previous convictions.