‘Daddy touched my cookie’

JEMIMA BEUKES



The stepsister of an eight-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her 69-year-old father has revealed that the family had been hiding this dark secret for three years.

According to the girl’s stepsister, they had asked her three years ago why her private parts appeared red.

She had then responded: “Daddy touched my cookie.”

The father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, applied for bail in the Rehoboth Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

He was arrested over the weekend, accused of having raped his daughter repeatedly between January 2015 and January this year.

According to the girl’s stepsister they noticed a vaginal discharge on her panties when was just five years old, and on inspection found that her private parts were red and swollen.

“My mom has a C-section scar, so on a particular day she had pain in that area and pressed and massaged there. My little sister saw she this and she ask: ‘Did Daddy also touch your cookie? You must not cry when Daddy touch your cookie’,” the sister related.

According to the stepsister, she visited her little sister in a different town when they were on a school trip and when she asked her how her parents were she said they were fighting.

“I asked her whey are fighting and she said: ‘They are quarrelling over my cookie’. I recorded that conversation and sent it to my mother. She also told me that Daddy would take her to the green car under the tree and touch her there,” she said.

According to the stepsister, the signs were there for a long time and at night the father would insist that he and his wife drink a cup of coffee and she would fall asleep immediately afterwards.

“Then he would take her (the girl) and carry her to the television room and after a while he would take her back. And they have been alone at home so many times before,” the stepsister said.

She also accused her stepfather of attempting to rape her and “making her life hell” when she resisted.

“I failed Grade 10. This drove me to drugs and alcohol, I even cut my wrists at some point because he told me he would make my mother unhappy. If the police do not find him guilty then I will kill him myself. Then I can go to jail but I will not have this on my conscience,” she said.

Although community members are in shock and unwilling to speak on the record, the majority said this was “old behaviour”.

Journalist Eveline de Klerk, who is a former pupil of the accused, said he had made sexual advances to pupils back then.

“He is a paedophile. We all know who he is; he was my maths teacher. The school knew about this. How on earth was he allowed to teach for that long seeing that he abused his powers as a teacher? He would demand girls to sit on his lap or demanded to be kissed if you get a math answer correct. Mind you, that was when we were in Grade 7. The poor netball girls, what else did he do to them?” she said.

Another of his former learners said he used to “touch our breasts at school or even ask that we kiss him”.

The accused told Namibian Sun yesterday that this was all just a ploy to get hold of his property, while claiming the rumours were spread by his stepdaughter.

“They will be happy to see the court send me to jail for ten years. I have diabetes and suffer from hypertension, and will surely die in jail and then they will get my properties and my cars,” he said.

According to him his stepdaughter is unstable and should not be taken seriously.

“This story started already in 2015 and no witnesses came to court, there is only one key witness and that is her (the stepdaughter)” he said.

The accused’s bail application will proceed today.

Risky

Yesterday prosecutor Hillia Munzenze opposed bail because the accused would return to the same house where his alleged victim lives.

The accused was represented by Christopher Stanley and the matter was heard by Magistrate Kandipawa Nangombe.