Priest admits to rape

2004-08-15 20:23

Pretoria - A Mpumalanga priest has been arrested for raping his 18-year-old step-daughter, Pretoria police reported on Sunday.

Captain Piletji Sebola said the 38-year-old man, who has confessed to raping the girl to police, started molesting the girl when she was 13-years of age at their Ekangala location home.

Sebola said a few years back the girl's mother once caught her husband raping the girl in the house.

The matter was discussed as a family issue and the priest apologised and promised not to do it again.

In January, the girl came to Garankuwa township, north west of Pretoria, to further her studies at Tshwane University of Technology.

In July, the priest sent a message to the girl requesting her to meet somebody else who was going to give her pocket money in Pretoria central.

When the girl went to town she found it was her step-father and he had apparently booked a room in a hotel where he raped her repeatedly.

Sebola said early in August, the priest requested the girl to meet him again in town and instead the girl failed to honour the appointment.

She asked a friend to accompany her to Garankuwa police station where she reported the matter and registered a case of rape against the priest.

The case was transferred to Pretoria Central police station as the rape occurred within that jurisdiction.

Pretoria police went to the priest's home in Ekangala earlier on Sunday and apprehended him.

Sebola said: "The priest is co-operating well with the investigators and he has admitted to the allegations."

"There is a possibility he might be taken for a legal confession through a court magistrate."

Sebola said all the allegations of rape would be investigated.

The priest was expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court soon.

Sebola refused to reveal the name of the church where the priest came from for fear of revealing the identity of the victim.

- SAPA