Paynesville – The stepfather of a 14-year-old girl has been charged with statutory rape after he allegedly impregnated her, according to court filings.
Report by Mae Azango, [email protected], New Narratives Senior Justice Correspondent
“The victim stayed with the defendant and his wife as their child,” the indictment read. “But during the night hours, the defendant usually tells the victim not to lock their room door and during the night when victim is asleep. The, defendant will go and have sex with her while the mother is asleep. The indictment said that as a result of the rape the victim became pregnant.
The man, 51, who is behind bars awaiting court trial, has four other children by girl’s mother. His name is withheld so as not to identify the victim. The mother of the victim said she had married the perpetrator when the victim was a small child and he had always treated her as his own child.
The case has caused uproar between neighbors in this community. A neighbor had reported the case to the police on November 29 after she claimed the victim’s mother and other relatives tried to compromise. The neighbor said she felt she had to take action to protect her own daughter who visited the alleged perpetrator every now and then.
“The grandmother of the little girl told me her… granddaughter had been raped by her daughter’s husband that left the girl pregnant,” the neighbor explained in an interview with FrontPage Africa over the weekend. “So that evening I called the mother…and when she confirmed… she told me to call the police while she would go into the house and stop the husband from leaving so he wouldn’t suspect anything,”
The mother of the alleged victim, who was standing nearby during the, interview interrupted to deny, she had told the neighbor to call the police. The mother said she only revealed to her neighbor that her husband had allegedly impregnated her daughter.
The family of the alleged victim is angry with the neighbor for reporting the case.
The neighbor insists she did the right thing. “I am a mother who is scared for my 15-year-old daughter who goes in their yard to play with her friend,” she said. “If he can do it to his own daughter, then what about my own daughter?”
Statutory rape carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Liberia.
The alleged perpetrator has been remanded at the Monrovia Central Prison as the law does not permit a rape suspect to be bailed. The Paynesville Magisterial Court, where the case was filed, is preparing the transfer to the Criminal Court E at the Temper of Justice that has jurisdiction over rape cases.
Outside of the magisterial court the biological father of the victim blamed the victim’s mother.“If she had left this child with me, this kind of thing was not going to happen,” he told the FrontPage Africa shaking with anger. “Look at this kind of embarrassment here.”
The news comes Liberia observes 16 days of activism against sexual and gender-based violence across the country. Rights campaigners are calling for more to be done to drop the huge number of rape cases, and other forms and sexual and gender-based violence.
“Wow, this is sad to know a father will do such a thing to his own child, especially during these 16 days of activism,” said Moore, executive director of ActionAid Liberia. “We will closely follow up this case.”
It is not clear the accused man’s case will be heard any time soon. Last year, for instance, only 28 cases went on trial of 302 rape cases, according to figures from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Campaigners have raised concern over the lack of safe homes for victims of sexual and gender-based violence.
“Once we have one safe homes, then those women who are in need will be able to go for rescue and will not return to the cycle of violence that they are experiencing day by day,” argued Caroline Bowah Brown, Country Director of Medica Liberia, earlier this year. “We hope that the government is listening and can start to do something about it,”
Siemon Kwein, assistant director of the SGBV Unit at the Ministry of Gender agrees with Bowah. “This makes it difficult for us to work with these victims because such victims have to move away from the community they were abused in to heal,” said Kwein, who works with the families of victims like Sumo providing psychosocial counseling. For now the victim’s family and community have been thrown into long term turmoil, with another child set to join them.
