2008/11/25
The mother of a little girl raped two years ago broke down and wept in the witness box yesterday when describing her daughter’s ordeal to the Grahamstown High Court.
The girl was 10-years-old when raped in New Township in Elliot in January 2006. Vivi Ntozini, 58, yesterday pleaded not guilty to the rape.
Testifying through an intermediary, the slender child, who may not be identified, told the court earlier she had been walking home from school on a Friday afternoon when she had stopped to ask an “old man” for water.
He had invited her into his home to get water and had then grabbed her, stripped her and raped her. She described how he had threatened to kill her if she told her mother what had happened.
The little girl was permitted to testify in a separate room through an intermediary via a closed circuit television after clinical psychologist Karen Andrews yesterday said she was “exceptionally afraid” of Ntozini.
Andrews described the little girl, who is now 12-years-old, as generally “confident, polite, co-operative and forthcoming with information”.
But, when speaking of the rape, Andrews said her demeanour changed. She could not maintain eye contact, struggled to maintain her composure and was “fearful and anxious”.
However, the petite child yesterday left the sanctuary of her witness room to come into the courtroom where she firmly pointed to Ntozini as the man who had raped her.
The tall, gaunt Ntozini sat quietly in the witness box while she pointed him out.
Her softly spoken mother described to the court how her daughter had come home minus one shoe on that fateful Friday.
She had sent her off to find the shoe. On return , the child had asked to bathe in her younger sibling’s bathwater.
It was only the next day that she had noticed her daughter was in pain. While recounting how she and her sister-in-law had examined the child and then beaten her to force her to tell them who was responsible for her injuries, the mother clutched her chest and begun to exhale loudly.
Eventually she sat down and sobbed into her apron. Acting Judge John Grogan ordered a brief adjournment to give her time to compose herself.
The matter continues today. - By ADRIENNE CARLISLE
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