Mother defends boyfriend accused of raping her daughter
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday April 20, 2017 17:34
As part of the boyfriend’s defence, the mother who cannot be named for legal reasons, shocked the court on Tuesday when she attributed her daughter’s claims to possible nightmares.
The mother told the court that she thought that her daughter merely had nightmares after a Guidance and Counselling teacher informed her that her boyfriend, a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldier based at Area S BDF Camp, had sexually assaulted her daughter three times.
The unemployed mother seemed to be at sixes and sevens when she was asked if she was denying the rape allegations levelled against her live-in boyfriend because she wanted to protect him at the expense of her own child while derailing justice.
The rape incidents allegedly happened in April 2013 and December 2014 in Francistown and Mogoditshane.
The complainant was just 13-years-old while the accused was 32-years-old when the incidents allegedly occurred.
Prosecutor Chimbisani Sechele implored the court to return a guilty verdict against the accused saying there was overwhelming evidence against the soldier.
Sechele said the fact that the child’s mother did not dispute that her daughter used to be sent to Area S BDF Camp to ask for relish from the accused was evidence enough that he could have first raped her on one of those sojourns.
Sechele said it was confusing why the child’s mother conceded sending her daughter to the Area S BDF Camp to ask for relish, but was disputing that her boyfriend could have raped her daughter during one of the trips.
The child’s mother also did not dispute that the accused and her daughter went together to Gaborone and ultimately Mogoditshane at a time where the then pregnant mother was about to deliver the couple’s other baby.
Sechele had told the court that before the accused and complainant went to Mogoditshane, the complainant left her place of residence at Bluetown to sleepover at the accused’s place in Area S BDF Camp. The two were set to ready up for their journey to Mogoditshane the following morning.
It was during that night that the complainant spent at the camp that he allegedly raped her for a second time.
Sechele added that the accused even went on to rape the child a third time in Mogoditshane, just as the mother went into labour on the same night of their arrival.
The child’s mother testified that while she was aware that her child had slept at the accused’s place, it could not be true that the accused raped her during that time because he was at a trip outside Francistown.
Earlier, the accused’s attorney Kagiso Jani disputed all allegations levelled against his client saying the soldier had an alibi.
He said the BDF Parade State Book (a register, which shows soldiers on duty and those not on duty) clearly indicated that the soldier was on official trips and had not travelled to Francistown at anytime between the trips when the incidents allegedly happened.
The case continues.