Manhunt for father accused of raping his daughter

A WARRANT of arrest has been issued for a Hammarsdale man who allegedly raped and impregnated his daughter.

The man failed to appear in the Camperdown Regional Court last week.

Provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant-colonel Nqobile Gwala said a case of rape had been opened.

“It is alleged that during 2018, a 17-year-old woman was raped and impregnated by a relative.

“The suspect was arrested and he failed to appear before the Camperdown Regional Court on May 6,” said Gwala.

According to the victim, she opened a case against the suspect in 2020 with the help of the Thuleleni Crime and Substance Abuse Awareness Organisation, a non-profit organisation in Inanda. The woman who was now 20, said when her parents separated in 2016, her father took her and her two younger sisters to live with him in Hammarsdale.

She said her father raped her and she became pregnant.

“I remember one night, he came into my room and snuggled behind me on the bed but I ran out and sat in the living room.

“He became so aggressive and assaulted me, resulting in a head injury.”

The victim said her father told her to lie and to claim that it was her boyfriend who made her pregnant.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, the mother of the victim said they had moved at least three times since the case was opened in 2020.

The mother said a DNA test was done by the police on her daughter’s child and the results identified her father as the suspect.

“Ever since the case was opened, we have lived in fear.

“The last incident happened last week Thursday, a day before the suspect’s first court appearance, when the three-year-old child went missing while he was playing in the garden.

“We suspect that he is the one behind the attempted kidnapping because we found the child in a nearby tavern, unattended,” she said.