Last week it was a 38-year-old father accused of sodomizing his 8-year-old son and tonight we have another disturbing case of sexual abuse to report. The victim is a 6-year-old girl and her 31-year-old father is accused of molesting her. The report is unusual because the alleged incident occurred in October of 2004,that's nearly two years ago.
The mother didn't report it to the police until this past Monday when she claims her daughter told her about it. The father, whose name we cannot release to protect his daughter, was picked up by police last night and this afternoon he was arraigned before Magistrate Sharon Frazer for aggravated assault on his now 8 year old daughter. The father was denied bail and sent to jail. His sister spoke to off camera and told us her brother does not belong there because he's innocent. She says the allegations were concocted by an angry wife.
Sister of Accused
"This is a problem with the wife because the wife just bex (mad) and she wants to get to him and she is using this against him because he got drunk and spent and spent all his money. She is using her daughter to get back at him and it happened already and she is doing it again. This happened 2 years ago, she used the same story and she is doing the same thing now. The proof is at the station, they already check the little girl and everything is normal, nothing happened to her, and then up here they jailed him for one week."
Keith Swift,
You believe your brother is innocent?
Sister of Accused,
"Yes he is. With the new law which came in, women are just taking advantage of it and it doesn't work that way. Use it for the purpose because the next time it really happens, she won't have the chance to come forward and say what really happened because they won't believe her the next time."
The family claims that the mother has agreed to withdraw the complaint and that a medical test proved the now 8 year old's hymen is still in tact. Magistrate Frazer took no plea and adjourned the case to March 29th. There is a statute of limitations on criminal offenses that are tried at the Magistrate's Court level. Because of that, the DPP will only be allowed to proceed with charges if he will try the case in the Supreme Court. Other than that the father will walk free. The couple has five kids together and a sixth one is on the way.
