An investigation has been conducted due claims by relatives that the little victim’s stepfather had also abused her.Jerome Petersen, was arrested last month after he allegedly raped the six-year-old girl in his bathroom and then gave her a R5.
The child’s family lives in a backyard dwelling behind the house and the girl was sent to the main house to get water.
On Sunday, two of his relatives contacted the Daily Voice and Bonteheuwel Ward Councillor Angus McKenzie to claim the child’s stepfather had been abusing her. He allegedly showed one of them the child’s private parts and said “something big” was inside the girl.
The relative also lives in the house and admits drugs are being abused there.
“Dis dagga, buttons en tik en hulle [the parents of the girl] rook ook,” he says.
“A few months ago, me and the stepfather were sitting in the hok. So the child is coming and I hear him hitting the child. I say, ‘no man’, and he says ‘come here and lock the door’.
“He tells her to sit and make her virgin open. Then he says ‘look here, there was someone big in there’.”
The relatives indicated that they’ve also signed the petition calling for bail to be refused when Petersen next appears in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court on 28 August.
The girl’s mother did not respond to queries on Sunday.
A shocked McKenzie said: “I sincerely hope that the parents were not involved, as alleged.”
Social Development MEC Albert Fritz says social workers have taken the victim and her younger sister from the house.
“There will be a full investigation into all the allegations made, as we will need to determine if the girl was being groomed.”
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