OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday
THE assault that killed a three-year-old toddler – allegedly for wetting her bed – was the culmination of a series of beatings by her father, the Cape High Court has heard.
Nicole Bianca Banthom, who died in August 1998 of extensive bleeding on the brain, had died fearing her father, a neighbour testified yesterday.
Nicole’s father, Aubrey Banthom, a worker on Mierkraal Farm near Riviersonderend, has pleaded not guilty to killing his daughter and twice assaulting his common law wife, Christelle Fourie.
Banthom has admitted slapping Nicole twice “on the bottom”. In a statement to Swellendam magistrate Phillip Groenewald, he said he hit her twice before her death because she had wet her bed. Banthom denied ever hitting Nicole on her head.
But medical evidence gained from a post-mortem examination confirmed the suspicions the neighbours had about what went on in the Banthom household.
When the little girl died her body was covered in bruises. She had two black eyes and her left eye was bleeding. There were deep tears on both her ears which were due to twisting, and deep bruises covered her entire head.
When Nicole complained of a headache, her mother asked a neighbour for a painkiller, saying that Nicole had a cold. Nicole died the next day.
“Nicole always ran to me and said that she was frightened of her daddy,” testified Francina Esau. She also said she had once heard a “slapping sound” come from Banthom’s house and subsequently heard Nicole crying.
Esau said she had heard Fourie telling Nicole that she could not have a drink of water “because then she will wet her bed and her father will hit her”. Nicole’s mother also shouted at her a lot.
She said she had once asked Nicole what had happened to her face and the toddler told her answered her that her “daddy had hit her”.
The trial continues tomorrow.