‘I was my dad’s sex slave’: Woman says she was abused for 25 years

An Atlantis father has been arrested after allegedly keeping his daughter as a sex slave for 25 years.

The woman said she was just 12 years old when the abuse started, after her mother died.

The woman, who cannot be identified, spoke exclusively to Weekend Argus as her 63-year-old father was hauled before the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court.

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said the man was arrested on charges of rape, sexual assault, sexual grooming and indecent assault.

The former taxi and truck driver was granted R1 000 bail on Wednesday.

The State will attempt to prove that the father of four groomed his eldest daughter to be his sexual partner, after burying his wife who died due to illness.

The alleged incidents took place from the time the victim was 12 years old in 1997 until this year.

The woman’s siblings have also come forward, saying they were aware of the alleged sexual abuse, apparently catching the father in the act.

The woman reported her father to police earlier this month.

She said: “The day I gave my statement, I felt like I betrayed him. I reported him to the police knowing what I did was also wrong.

“I do believe he used me to be his sexual slave, I was just there to give him pleasure whenever he sought it.”

She said she remembers her father brushing himself up against her while she was cooking and that he had eventually led her to the couch where he said this would be a dark secret between them.

Later, he would wait until everyone left or for the other children to fall asleep before attacking her.

“I was still a child when it started and I didn’t know what the up and down movements meant or what an erection was.

“He would breathe heavily in my ear and say, ‘it is just a cuddle and a bond between us’.”

She said as she grew older, she “switched off” and accepted her lot in life, while her father also threatened her.

“He would say that if I came out with it, my brothers and sister would be without a father and a place to live.”

She added: “I have never been with anyone sexually besides my father. This one time I spoke with a taxi driver, he smacked me.”

She said her father used condoms and when it broke, he would give her the morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy.

Atlantis Woman’s Movement founder and owner of House of Healing shelter, Barbara Rass, has taken the woman under her wing.

Barbara said: “We are asking why he was granted bail when he has such severe charges?

Kavya Swaminathan, a clinical psychologist, said the case had the hallmarks of trauma bonding.

“Trauma bonding refers to the attachment a victim or survivor of abuse feels towards their perpetrator.

“This manifests itself usually in cases where continuous or cyclical patterns of abuse are present.”

Weekend Argus