Daughters of darkness: Horrifying case of incest

A man has been remanded for alleged incest after fathering his 17-year-old eldest daughter’s six-months-old baby while his 15-year-old daughter is three months pregnant.

The man, a father of four girls who had been employed on and off as a security guard, had been arrested by the Police Unit of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) after his wife made a complaint on October 11.

The suspect, was produced before Colombo Chief Magistrate Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena, on October 17 and remanded till October 31.

The daughters were handed over to the mother, said NCPA’s Chief Inspector W.D.T. Wijesena adding that the suspect’s 15-year-old daughter was examined by the Judicial Medical Officer of Kalubowila.

According to the statements given by the mother and the two daughter-victims, as the couple was unemployed they had been moving from town to town with the daughters being shifted from school to school.

The father had allegedly started abusing the eldest daughter in July 2005 and threatening her not to tell her mother. The mother had been told of the girl's plight only after the girl became pregnant.

When the baby was to be born, the father had admitted the girl to the Peradeniya Hospital, giving a false name as to the father of the child.

Unable to bear the suffering her eldest daughter was undergoing and also the harassment by the man, the mother and four daughters had fled their home in April this year, only to be reunited on a complaint made by the man to another state agency dealing with women and children, even though the mother had told of her fears to those officials as well, The Sunday Times learns.
That ironic ‘reunion’ on July 16 was to be a tragic turn of events for this already battered family. For, soon after, on July 26, the father had allegedly begun to abuse the second daughter too, taking in one girl one night and the second the next night, while also allegedly turning violent.

The man is to be charged with incest and rape under Section 363 and 364 of the Penal Code.