The 45-year-old woman who is charged with raping her 14-year-old daughter in Nasinu, has denied all the allegations levelled against her before High Court Judge, Justice Salesi Temo.
When questioned by her lawyer Namrata Mishra, the mother denied that she raped her daughter 20 times between 1st January to the end of July last year.
The woman said that she is a mother, she only has one daughter and she gave her good teachings.
The 45-year-old woman said that she used to tell her daughter to concentrate on her education and not do what she was doing.
She also admitted that she used to hit her daughter at times if she did not do what the mother used to tell her.
The woman said that her daughter came to live with her in December 2015 after she had requested the Social Welfare Department for her to spend Christmas with her family.
She said that her daughter was good when she came, however, she changed when school started.
During cross-examination by state lawyer Sujata Lodhia, the mother confirmed that her daughter was earlier living in an orphanage because something had happened at their house.
The woman confirmed that she used to hit her daughter if she did not listen to her.
However, she maintained that she never raped her daughter.
The 45-year-old woman also said that her daughter used to fear her as she used to hit her.
She also said that she was never alone at home with her daughter as she also had three sons.
The woman also said that she does not know why her daughter lodged the complaint against her.
Justice Temo then intervened and said that everyone loves their mother and why would the daughter choose to report the matter to police.
The woman said that she does not know what happened to her daughter.
Justice Temo asked again why the daughter would go and report a sexual abuse matter against her mother.
He said that children do lie but this is another level.
The woman said that she sometimes used to growl at her daughter and also smack her as the girl had begun to know boys and used to smoke.
Justice Temo said that it is not unusual for girls at 14 to interact with boys and smoke at school.
The mother said that those are the things she used to forbid her daughter from doing.
Lodhia then said that the reason why the woman is bringing side issues about her daughter is because she wanted to save herself.
The woman denied this.
Justice Temo has advised the assessors that he has found a case to answer on one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.
He will sum up the case tomorrow before the assessors deliberate on their opinion.
The matter was reported at Nakasi Police Station by the 14-year-old girl’s teacher.
The girl had told the teacher that her mother was allegedly raping her between 1st January and 5th July last year.
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