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A 40-year-old woman from Kouga pleaded guilty to failing to report to the police that her 17-year-old daughter had allegedly been raped by her son - the victim's half-brother.
She also pleaded guilty to defeating the administration of justice by instructing her husband to destroy pornography material in his possession which could be used as incriminating evidence against him.
As previously reported by the Kouga Express, the woman’s husband and her son were arrested in September last year after her teenage daughter opened a case against the two at Jeffreys Bay Police Station in August 2022.
The woman was also arrested in September and has remained in custody.
On June 30 at the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court, the woman, whose name is withheld to protect her children’s identity, pleaded guilty to failing to report a sexual offence against a child and defeating the administration of justice.
She was represented by Advocate Johan van der Spuy.
Porn addiction
According to court documents, before pleading guilty, she admitted that her husband had a severe porn addiction ever since she met him. She said he spent every spare moment before and after work and on weekends watching pornography on his computer. He did this regardless of whoever was in the room.
In her statement read out in court she said, “The children would be in the room watching television and my husband would openly watch porn, clear for all to see.”
She further said her husband had access to various porn sites and would often take screenshots of the footage which he would share on his website. People also paid him to give them access to the links to the porn sites.
She said her children easily had access to the pornography, despite their tender ages and she knew that the situation was very unhealthy and that it was a "recipe for disaster".
The woman has a 20-year-old son from a pervious relationship and three minor children with her current husband.
She admitted that she should have dealt with the situation but failed to do so because she feared her husband and since she was unemployed, she depended on him financially.
She therefore turned a blind eye and “hoped for the best”.
Disclosure of rape
She said on January 1, 2021 her daughter confided in a relative who then encouraged her to share the information with her mother.
On the same day, she said her daughter told her that her older half-brother raped her on her 15th birthday and that he was still abusing her.
She further revealed that her husband then showed her a picture of her eldest son naked and involved in a sexual act with her daughter.
In her statement she said, “I was very upset about this as I had also been a victim of sexual abuse when I was a child, and my parents did nothing to help me.”
She said they then discussed the matter with her daughter and explained to her that attempting to resolve the issue legally would be a long process, which could take years to be resolved.
The woman then asked her younger children if her son had done anything to them and her 12-year-old daughter revealed that he had put his hand down her pants, while her 14-year-old son said that he had touched his genitals.
She said she was stuck in a very difficult situation as her daughter was a victim of the abuse while her son and husband were the perpetrators.
She further said she was worried about her daughter but that it was clear that her son would be jailed if he is convicted.
The woman said they then decided to deal with the matter within their family and asked others for advice.
However, she admitted that she never reported that her children had been raped and sexually abused to anyone.
Destroying evidence
The woman said she was aware that her husband was under investigation for possession of pornographic material, for exposing their young children to pornography and for the possible involvement in the rape of her daughter.
Since she was aware that the police would soon search her house, on May 25, 2022 she contacted her husband to inform him about the possible raid so that he could erase any incriminating evidence on his computer and hard drives.
In her statement she said, “I phoned him (my husband) and warned him about the impending raid. I knew his computer and hard drives would contain proof of all his activities and that he would possibly have time to erase incriminating evidence.”
Guilty plea
The woman pleaded guilty to both counts against her and she has been convicted to three years' imprisonment for each of the counts, wholly suspended for a period of five years on the condition that she is not convicted of the same offences during the period of her suspension.
Her husband and son, who were both previously denied bail, will appear in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court on August 29 for charges ranging from rape, incest and sexual grooming, among other charges.
