Sanitary pads expose rapist dad

SANITARY pads landed a Cowdray Park suburb man in trouble after he allegedly raped and impregnated his stepdaughter, prompting the daughter to stop asking for sanitary pads from her mother.

The man who cannot be named to conceal the identity of the victim allegedly raped his 13-year-old stepdaughter three times while her mother was at her rural home attending a funeral.

The stepdaughter's rape ordeal only came to light when her mother noticed she had not used her sanitary pads for two months prompting her to interrogate her child over the issue and the child subsequently let the cat out of the bag.

"The complainant's mother suspected that her daughter was pregnant after she did not ask for sanitary pads. That is when the complainant revealed to her mother that her stepfather raped her three times when she was away," said the prosecutor Leane Nkomo.

As the law would have it, he has been arrested and brought to court where he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya facing three counts of rape.

Tashaya did not ask him to plead and remanded him in custody to 21 April, 2017.

The prosecutor told the court that sometime in January this year the victim`s mother went to her rural home to attend a funeral.

"In the evening of the day in question, the accused person told the complainant that she was supposed to come to his bedroom and sleep with her siblings on the floor since their mother was not around. During the night the accused person woke up, closed the complainant`s mouth and raped her once," said Nkomo.

As if that was not enough, the accused person further "feasted" on the complainant on the following two consecutive days. He allegedly threatened to assault her if she revealed the matter to anyone.

The court heard that the girl noticed that her stomach was getting bigger and informed his stepfather who told her to calm down as he was going to buy special pills for her to reduce the bulging tummy.

It is said that after the rape incident came to light, the stepdaughter and mother went to the police station to report the matter.

The girl was referred to hospital and a medical report will be produced in court as evidence.