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'Incest dad' a liar, says court
10/08/2006 21:49 - (SA)
Nkosana ka Makaula
Nelspruit - A magistrate had harsh words for a father suspected of kidnapping and killing his toddler and hurling the body into a river.
Eduardo Moses Chilengue, 18, of Mozambique tried to apply for bail in Nelspruit magistrate's court on Thursday, but his application was rejected.
"You have told so many stories in this court that I now find it difficult to separate the truth from the lies," said magistrate Anna-Marie van der Merwe.
"You also come here with a deadpan face, showing no emotion, as if it is not your child we are talking about."
The child is believed to have been born out of an incestuous relationship between Chilengue and his sister.
He would not answer the magistrate's question about the affair on Thursday.
Tracksuit top found
In court last week, Chilengue did not dispute that he had taken the child, Justino Chilengue, two, and later confessed to killing the boy and throwing his body into the Crocodile River.
He did not dispute pointing out the scene of the crime, where the boy's tracksuit top was found. His stepmother identified the tracksuit top as belonging to her grandson, whom she'd last seen with Chilengue.
On Thursday, however, he told the court that two other men had taken the child after his stepmother arranged for someone to baby-sit him.
He claimed his stepmother didn't want her husband to know that she'd found a babysitter for the child and had asked Chilengue to pretend he'd taken the baby to his girlfriend's house.
Court told of incest
"She told me to tell my father that I had taken the boy to my girlfriend as his mother had ran away to Mozambique and there was nobody to care for the child at home," he told the court.
He said he and the mother had had a quarrel and she took off.
When asked if he was the father of his sister's child, he did not answer.
Investigating office, constable Velly Mlombo told the court last week that Chilengue's mother had confessed that the child was a product of incest.
The case was postponed to August 24.
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