This story may upset sensitive readers.
Chilling details of a child's testimony against his mother and a stepfather - accused of rape and sexual assault - emerged during closing arguments on Wednesday.
The East Rand mother and her husband, who both cannot be named to protect the 12-year-old's identity, appeared in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
They were arrested in 2017, when the child ended up in a place of safety and reported that he was being abused.
The alleged abuse and rape were alleged to have occurred between 2013 and 2017, from the time he was four years old until eight.
The mother has been charged with rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child negligence and compelling or causing children to witness sexual offences, sexual acts or self-masturbation.
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The boy's stepfather faces charges of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
During her argument, prosecutor Adele Barnard went over elements of the testimony the child had given to the court last year.
In one incident, the child testified that while he and his mother were living at a strip club in Germiston in March 2017, he was tied up in a dungeon and sexually violated.
"His evidence related to that he was taken to a dungeon that was beneath a house where he and his mother were staying, and there was a strip club. He further says that there in the dungeon, it was very dark, it was cold. He described a chair that was inside that room. He first gave a detailed description of this chair. He said it was a leather chair that was chained to the roof, and a photo was then shown to him, which he then identified," said Barnard.
"He also drew a handwritten sketch to show the court how he was tied to this chair. He indicated his arms on where the chains are and his feet at the bottom. He testified that in that dungeon, there was an incident where there were several other people that came down to the dungeon while he was being held there and that these people took photos and inserted his toti (penis) into their mouth and sucked it and kissed it and accused one was present when this was done," she continued.
According to the indictment, the child lived with both accused in Shelley Beach, Margate in KwaZulu-Natal between 2013 and 2015. The stepfather allegedly sexually groomed and raped him on numerous occasions. "Accused 2 [the stepfather] threatened to kill the complainant, should he tell anyone about the rape and the sexual assault. Whilst raping the complainant, accused 2 took photographs and made videos of the sexual act," read the indictment.
In 2017, the child and his mother moved to Germiston, where the rape allegedly continued. "On one occasion, the complainant went for a swim in a swimming pool and when he came out of the pool, accused 1 [the mother] instructed him to remove his wet clothing and climb into bed with her, naked. Accused one was also naked under the covers at the time," read the indictment.The State alleged his mother raped him there and threatened to assault him should he not comply.Barnard said the child's evidence was corroborated by Captain Veronica Banks, who testified that the child had told her about the rapes while she took his statement. She said that despite his age, the child could give graphic details of incidents and even provided drawings to the court. "The State agrees that there might have been minor contradictions which his evidence with regard to the different places where things happened, and he was not sure exactly at which house and what the dates were, but one must not lose sight of the fact that this happened over an extended period and they moved around, that's common cause," she said.The matter continues on Thursday.News24
