Mom, kids tell of sex abuse
2004-02-18 19:22
Brits - Evidence of how a 47-year-old father is claimed to have physically and sexually abused his four children emerged in Brits regional court on Wednesday.
The man, from Mooinooi in North West, earlier pleaded not guilty to 26 charges including attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, indecent assault, contraventions of the Child Care Act.
The man and his 32-year-old wife were arrested in August 2002. She pleaded guilty to four charges of assault and one of child abuse against their three sons aged 10, nine and seven and their two-year-old daughter.
The woman was sentenced to three years in jail, suspended for five years on condition she turned State witness against her husband.
She and the three boys then told of abuse in their testimony.
The mother said: "He played with their private parts until they became stiff. They had to play with him and then he ordered them to touch my breasts and private parts.
Hit them with sjamboks
He also took our daughter's nappy off and touched her or sucked her breasts. The boys had to do the same," she said.
The children obeyed, she said, as he threatened to hit them.
The father also threatened to sell his children and hit them with sjamboks or his fists all over their bodies.
There was always food for him, but not for the children, and the mother once apparently stole a cow to slaughter for food.
The court heard the three boys had to sleep under a few blankets in an outside room with the pig's food, as their room in the house was used for the father's tools.
The woman said her husband would have sex with her and then call the three boys from the bath. It was then that he would sexually abuse his family.
He apparently threatened to sell them once when three men came to the property. The children were so scared they ran into the hills behind the house.
The wife said: "After his arrest he would phone me from jail, prescribing what I should testify.
"He said if I did not do it and he was granted bail, he would kill the children and me."
'Often fired shots at the children'
Under cross examination, she denied she was just saying things to clear herself. She also denied that it was her or anyone else who committed the indecent acts.
Asked why she did not take her children away from the accused, she said: "He would kill us if he found us. He said so himself. He often fired shots at the children."
The case continues on Thursday.
The man has also denied contraventions of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, vehicle theft, negligent shooting of a firearm and not storing a firearm in a safe place.
- SAPA