Boys tell of sex hell with dad

2004-01-22 00:06

Liela Magnus

Johannesburg - An 11-year-old boy has described his father as an "agitated jackal" because he apparently sexually assaulted and mistreated him, his two younger brothers and sister for years. He also used them for target practice.

The father has pleaded not guilty to 26 charges of, among others, attempted murder, indecent assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The middle boy, aged 10, who apparently bore the brunt of his 46-year-old father's anger, says the man "chased" him all the time. They live in Mooinooi in North West.

Asked by a psychologist if their father ever played games with them, he said: "We don't play. He just hits."

A report summitted by the psychologist to the Brits magistrate's court says the 10-year-old said the family "have to live like pigs and eat stale bread".

Giving evidence, education psychologist Elmarie van Pareen said the children's 36-year-old mother at one stage cut up grass so that her children had something to eat and, another time, she stole and slaughtered an animal for food.

Mother hit them with a whip

She and the children had to seek shelter in the hills when the father's girlfriends and so-called fiancées visited.

The report says the boys were not protected by their mother. They describe her as "an ugly animal" and a "naughty mommy". She hit them with a whip.

The mother told Van Pareen the children were forced to have oral sex with one another, their father and herself and to touch one another.

The report says the father chased the children away "like dogs" after they had sexually satisfied him.

Van Pareen said the father shot the children's little dog dead in front of them and threatened to do the same with them.

Van Pareen said the children didn't go to school and, during evaluation, the little girl was unable to communicate verbally.

Father's face turned red

The three boys - aged nine, 10 and 11 - had the intellect of children four years younger than themselves.

She said the mother had told her: "I think the children sometimes don't register when you talk to them because their father hits them regularly against their heads."

The father stood in the dock, his face turning red every time Van Pareen explained what the children had told her.

The case is continuing.

- Beeld