Father to spend second weekend in jail for allegedly raping eight-year-old son
The state requested a postponement in the bail application of a father accused of raping his own son.
A young girl’s parents have been accused of prostituting her for money.
A 39-year-old father will spend a second weekend behind bars as he waits to make a formal bail application at the Randburg Magistrates’ Court, Randburg Sun reports.
The father, who is understood to be a former teacher at a Sandton school, cannot be named in order to protect the victim.
READ MORE: Pregnant woman raped in front of her child, bites her alleged rapist’s private part
The man is accused of raping his eight-year-old son repeatedly.
It is understood that alarms were raised at the end of January during a conversation between the mother and the son.
The son told the mother how the father allegedly made him play with his private parts, among other things he was forced to do. It is reported that when the mother told the child how wrong that was, the child became scared and told the mother that nothing more happened.
A case of sexual assault was then opened.
According to Advocate Vincent Pienaar for the defence, the accused was cooperating with police since the case was opened at the end of January.
The mother took the child to a psychologist where a gruesome discovery was made. It was found that the child had been repeatedly raped.
He was taken to a medical doctor for further observation, where it was confirmed by a doctor that the child had indeed been raped.
During his brief appearance before Regional Magistrate Lebogang Leshabane on 23 March, the state requested a further postponement to finalise investigations before the accused could formally apply for bail.
Prosecutor Bathabile Rapopo told the court that the state still needed to verify the accused’s employment status. Rapopo said the state understood the accused was a teacher, and whether he was still employed as a teacher was something they still need to verify with the said school.
The prosecutor also told the court that the state needed to have a social worker appointed to do a report on the welfare and well-being of the children.
Pienaar objected to the postponement by the state. He said the state has known about the case since the end of January.
He said his client was not a flight risk, cooperated with police and was committed to stand trial. Pienaar also told the court that since the allegations emerged, his client voluntarily resigned from his position as a teacher.
The advocate told the court that his client will not interfere with witnesses or investigations.
He also told the court that the accused has since moved from his matrimonial home where the son (complainant), sister and the mother reside.
Pienaar said the accused will be staying with his parents if granted bail.
The magistrate told the defence that it must bear in mind that this was a Schedule 6 offence, meaning that the onus was on the defence to prove exceptional circumstances that would warrant that the accused be released on bail.
Leshabane granted the state the postponement to attend to final touches on their investigations.
The accused was arrested on 16 March after handing himself over to the police and has been in custody since.
The case has been riddled with postponements as the state had to comply with other standard procedures when dealing with such a case, including reporting the case to the Children’s Court as the victim is underage.
The case has been remanded to 29 March for further investigations, pending the bail application.
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/pregnant-woman-raped-in-front-of-her-child-bites-her-alleged-rapists-private-part/
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