'Incest priest' loses bail bid
2006-03-09 22:45
White River - A man accused of fathering his daughter's three children after convincing his family that it was his Biblical right has been denied bail.
The 49-year-old father appeared in KaBokweni magistrate's court outside White River, Mpumalanga, on Wednesday on charges of incest.
The case was postponed to March 15.
He is accused of sleeping with his 21-year-old daughter since she was 13.
She has a six-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter.
Police said the suspect kept his family like prisoners and banned them from talking to neighbours to "protect them from the evils of the world".
They believed the world was coming to an end soon.
Family read of his plot
Police alleged the family had its own "church" where the father preached that a girl had to sleep with her father in order to go to heaven.
The father had his own bedroom and allegedly would call either his wife or daughter when he wanted sex.
The family escaped when they came across a letter on February 4 in which the man allegedly wrote of a plan to kill them and commit suicide with his licensed firearm.
The girl, her three children, her mother, and five siblings fled to relatives in Nkomazi, south of Malelane, and told police what had been happening.