DNA seals rapist stepfather's fate

A man who repeatedly raped his stepdaughter (12) and impregnated her has discovered that DNA never lies. According to a Pretoria News report, he presented the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) with numerous excuses as to why he never touched the child. The man is spending his life behind bars after the court earlier convicted him of rape. He appealed both his conviction and sentence, which was dismissed. Apart from saying the child had lied, the man, who has eight children of his own, said if the court was convinced he was guilty, a life sentence for raping a child was shockingly harsh, as it was not ‘the worse kind of rape’. The child testified that her stepfather had raped her numerous times. She told her ill mother about it, but she did nothing. After her mother died she told her aunt what had happened. It was discovered that she was four months pregnant and given an abortion. As the stepfather denied he had raped her or fathered the foetus, compulsory DNA tests were done, which confirmed he was the father. In a bid to justify the DNA findings, the man at first said the blood sample was never taken from him, but his small son, the half-sibling of the victim. He maintained that the late woman’s family tried to frame him because they wanted to take the children away from him so they could claim child support grants. The court rejected his defences and confirmed that he was the culprit.