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'My husband raped me'
15/11/2006 07:41 - (SA)
Sharika Regchand
Durban - A woman who was left half-paralysed after an accident has succeeded in having her former husband convicted of rape after three years.
Janine Lloyd said she had realised that there was no need to stand abuse of any kind.
"Because he was my husband, it did not give him rights over me," she said.
Lloyd has been psychologically traumatised by the rape but says disclosing it has made her a stronger, more determined woman.
"It doesn't mean that because you are disabled you should not be treated properly," she said.
The rape has changed her life and she does not look at men the same way.
Raped her as she slept
Whenever she sees her former husband, Graham Aldum, 58, she feels anger towards him, she said.
Aldum, of Mayor's Walk, was convicted for raping Lloyd while she was asleep and highly medicated.
The rape took place on January 1 2003.
Aldum, who works at a printing company, was convicted at the Pietermaritzburg regional court and sentencing was postponed to December.
Describing the attack, Lloyd, who has no movement on one side of her body after an accident 14 years ago, said she took medication for epilepsy and fell asleep. Aldum raped her as she slept, but just before he could finish, she woke up.
"When I came out of it, I confronted him and he denied it," she said, adding that she waited for him to go to his bedroom and charged him the next day.
At the time the couple were living in the same house but were estranged and slept in separate bedrooms.
Aldum admitted to Lloyd's parents that he raped her and said he was sorry.
He even sent an SMS to Lloyd telling her that he was sorry for the rape.
Lloyd said she had known Aldum several years before they got married and he was always wonderful towards her. However, after they married he changed and became physically abusive towards her and her child.
She alleged that once when she had an epileptic fit, he raped her and she told him never to do it again. On another occasion he allegedly raped her again, which prompted her to obtain a protection order against him. He allegedly disobeyed the order and raped her. He was convicted for this rape.
Aldum's defence in the trial was that they had consensual sex, which was rejected by the court.
Director of the Rape Crisis Centre, Debbie Harris, said they seldom come across cases where women were raped by their husbands, as it was seldom reported to police.
"Women themselves won't identify it as rape. They say he makes me do it, etc," she said, adding that the woman may not have consented in these circumstances.
Harris said they offered women education and support and tried and help the couple.
"Legal resources are the last option," she said.
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