- The traditional doctor raped his 12 year old daughter on numerous occasions
- Magistrate says knowledge of his HIV status deepens the sentence
- Victim was also raped by his 14 year old brother
- Brother’s case being handled by social workers
A 46-year-old traditional doctor of Tsau village will spend the next 20 years in jail following his sentencing by Maun Magistrate Court for a charge of rape, in which he was found guilty of raping his 12-year-old daughter in 2020.
The same victim is also alleged to have been raped by her brother after being sexually abused by her father the previous night and this case is being handled by social workers as he is still a minor, while the complainant has been given refugee at a children’s home.
The pervert traditional doctor repeatedly raped the victim on various occasions while her 14-year-old brother allegedly raped her once.
Maun Chief Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu said while he took into consideration that the accused person was a first-time offender, he also took into account that he had been convicted for a serious offence. Mulalu noted that the fact that the accused person is the victim’s biological father whom she looked up to for safety, called for a stiff sentence for the accused.
“I was made aware that the victim was taken to safety after the case was reported taking note that the accused person had been raping her for a while until the day of his arrest, she was actually put to safety from her father,” Mulalu stressed.
He added that prosecution was also able to prove that the accused person knew his HIV status and that he was aware of that by the time of committing the offence. Mulalu said that also deepened his sentence.
Mulalu has said from his cautious assessment on the case he failed to find any extenuation circumstances adding that the accused person also failed to provide any but the only thing he noticed was an aggravate to the offence.
“With that being said, the accused person is sentenced to 20 years in prison taking into account 88 days he spent in prison pending sentencing,” Mulalu passed the sentence.
In his mitigation plea the accused person had pleaded for a lesser sentence arguing that he is the sole care taker of his 5 children, including the complainant.
According to court papers, the matter was reported to the police by the victim’s teacher and Safety Health Officer on August 22,2020. This reportedly followed the doctor’s establishment at Tsau clinic that the victim had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) which she seemed to have had for a while.
During trial the Investigating Officer (IO) Onalethata Mothapisi previously told court that before the incident was reported they were already investigating another matter in which the same victim was allegedly raped by another suspect.
Motlhapisi revealed that when interrogating the victim about the previous rape case it surfaced that she was forced to lie about the perpetrator, and it later became apparent that he (father) had actually raped the victim.
According to the IO, the alleged suspect when questioned claimed innocence and indicated that he suspects the victim’s father to be the one who sexually abused his daughter.
The accused person however argued that his daughter was once raped, hence him and her mother only met the police during investigations of the matter and later met the IO on the day of his arrest, adding that he did not know what he had done to be arrested.
