A 37-year-old man is tonight in jail- accused of sodomizing his 9-year-old son. To protect the identity of the child we cannot disclose the father's name but we can tell you that the incident allegedly occurred on the afternoon of Sunday March 5th inside their home in the Port Loyola area, the boy's mother today talked to us off-camera, again we won't use her face or name to protect the child, but she told us the incident happened last Sunday when the boy was home alone with the father. She says her traumatized son didn't tell her about it until Friday night.
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"Friday evening my son told me that his father sexually assaulted him in the room; he put grease on his hand and greased my son's behind and had sex in the behind. That is what he told me and that he was screaming for help and biting his hands and shouting help, 'somebody please help me.' He is very traumatized right now because he doesn't want to hear about his father because it really gets to him. He says he wants to see his dad in jail because it really hurts hum to see that he has so many trust in this man and he did him that."
Keith Swift,
Do you believe your son?
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"I believe him 100% because the symptoms showed that he did it because he complains of stomach aches, I took him to the doctor, and the doctor checked."
Keith Swift,
You've been with this man for 17 years, you have six kids, is this something you expected?
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"Truly it has happened before but when I went to the authorities for help they didn't believe us, just like now because its really shocking to see that a father of so many kids and so many years of a relationship would ever do such a thing like that."
Keith Swift,
In court this afternoon he told the magistrate he could never do this to his child.
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"That is always his issue because whenever an abuser abuses somebody like their victim, they never own up to it."
Keith Swift,
People are saying that if this happened before, why did you stay with him?
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"Well you know with family members you can only stay with them for a certain amount, like period of time. You would put me up in their home but after two months they might put me out and say you have to go on your own and work. If you only two or one child then they can deal with the situation but if you have six or five kids, then they won't do that. They might only help for a few months and they put you out so that is why I ended up in this situation."
As confirmed by his common-law wife, the father has been accused before. In fact it was in 2001 that he was accused of raping his then 9 year old daughter. He was charged with aggravated assault and harm. That case never made it to court. The suspect's family says that case like this one, is an attempt by the mother to get even with her lover who she has been with for 17 years. The suspect's sister today told us her brother is wrongfully accused. She says he is the real victim.
Sister of Accused,
"This is not the first time. Listen to me, the first time this happened was like, right now the oldest child is thirteen years old and at that time she was like nine or ten. They had a family problem and she reported to the police that the father raped the girl. Doctors and police went through the problem and when the case happened, nothing went like that. Like I said before, whenever there is a problem between my brother and her, she put it to court so that police can arrest him for something. I am upset because if the first time wasn't true, why would this one be true."
Keith Swift,
These are some very serious charges.
Sister of Accused,
"Well I really don't know what to say, I don't know what to say about it but to me it doesn't sound too proper."
Keith Swift,
You are saying this mother put this child up to do this?
Sister of Accused,
"Yes she is making of because all the children, I don't know if she is setting up the children or what, but I do believe to my heart, I do believe she is setting up kids."
Mother of Alleged Victim,
"The issue about I want the house or that I tried to get back at him, that's not it. My issue is about my son dignity. He took away all of son's manhood."
Bail was denied and the father was remanded to the Hattieville prison until April 7th. We note that contrary to what the police reported there is no confirmation that the boy was indeed sodomized. There were abrasions but the pediatrician could not confirm penetration. We should add that they wasn't examined until today, 8 days after the incident allegedly occurred.
