The pensioner stepfather of a 44-year-old Witbank businesswoman has agreed to pay her R300 000 following claims by the woman that he raped and sexually abused her over a period of 13 years, the Pretoria News reported on its website on Thursday.
The woman initially claimed R1,8-million in damages from the elderly man in the Pretoria High Court. The man, however, decided to offer her R300 000 before the matter was due to go on trial on Wednesday.
Judge Aubrey Ledwaba made the agreement an order of court.
The stepfather, however, noted in his agreement that the settlement was not an admission of any wrongdoing.
The woman, a mother of two, stated in court papers that her mother married her stepfather in 1972. They then went to live with him on his farm in Mpumalanga. She claimed that he started to molest and rape her a year after the wedding, when she was 11-years-old.
This, she said, continued until 1987, when she was 24 and married to her present husband. She claimed that her stepfather inappropriately fondled her, exposed his genitals to her, repeatedly raped her and inappropriately kissed her. The woman stated that when she at last confronted him about this in 2005, he admitted to sexually abusing and molesting her.
She said she suffered severe emotional trauma and shock due to being exposed to the much older man’s sexual abuse over the years.
She had to undergo intense psychological treatment and will have to continue with this in future.
The woman was so severely affected by what had happened to her that she had been admitted to hospital with depression and wanted to commit suicide. She said she was subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment by her stepfather, who intruded upon her personal privacy.
Her stepfather, now a grandfather, denied all the allegations against him in his plea before the court, in spite of agreeing to settle the issue. – Sapa