FATHER SENTENCED TO TWO LIFE TERMS FOR RAPING HIS TWIN DAUGHTERS
A 54-year-old man was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms by the Mount Fletcher Regional Court for raping his biological twin daughters on numerous occasions over more than ten years. The court further sentenced the man to five years on each of the two counts of sexual assault he was convicted of. He cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims. One of the twins is mentally disabled. The court heard that the mother of the victims passed away in 2011, and the two girls, who were then 11 years old, stayed with their father at their home. He started with inappropriately touching them on their private parts before raping repeatedly raping one twin. When that one twin got employed out of town in 2019, he started raping the mentally disabled twin.
The supervisor of the employed twin noticed that she was not well psychologically and inquired about her. She divulged that her father had been raping her. The supervisor informed the girls’ older sister, and she confronted their father, but the man denied it. However, the twin that was left behind with the father told her older sister that after her twin got employed, the father started raping her. A family meeting was called, and the father admitted to his criminal deeds, leading to the opening of a case by the twins’ uncle and his arrest.
During the trial, he pleaded not guilty and claimed that the disabled child was falsely accusing him because she did not want him to keep her disability grant. State Advocate Thamsanqa Vinindwa led the evidence of one of the twin’s supervisor, who was the first report, the twin’s older sister, the uncle and the victims. And under cross-examination, the accused could not explain the reason his children all accused him of the crime.
Welcoming the sentence, Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Barry Madolo commended the family of the victims for reporting the matter to the authorities when it came to their attention, instead of attempting to conceal it for fear of humiliation as is usually the case.
