My stepfather raped me, sexually abused younger sister, woman tells court

A man, John Dickson has been accused by his step daughter,   Esther
Isaiah of raping her and sexually abusing her younger sister.
Isaiah, a fashion designer, while testifying in a Mapo Customary Court
in Ibadan, Oyo State on Wednesday accused her stepfather John Dickson,
of raping her .
Testifying in a Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, Isaiah, 20, also
alleged that her stepfather was was responsible for her childlessness.
She said: “Our stepfather started molesting me at age 12 and my
younger sister whenever we visit our mother in her matrimonial home.
“Whenever my mother is not at home, my stepfather will threaten that
he will kill me if I don’t allow him sleep with me.So, I allowed him
in order to live. He raped me so many times.
“I never told my mother because I didn’t know what will happen, but I
told my friends. He also raped my younger sister. She told me that our
stepfather comes into the room where she sleeps with a mask and rapes
her.”
Earlier, Dickson, who spoke through an interpreter, said he filed the
divorce suit on grounds of abandonment.
He alleged that his wife, Mary, abandoned him for three years without
any reason.
However, Mary countered her husband’s submission of abandonment when
she described him as evil and an animal in human skin.
She said: “It is true that I left Dickson’s home. He raped my
daughter, one of the two children I had before I married him.
The girl was afraid to tell me what my husband did to her and she
stopped visiting me. In Cross River, where I am from, it is a taboo
for a man to sleep with a stepdaughter and her mother.
“Except a certain sacrifice is performed, the stepdaughter might never
conceive and the mother will die. I am currently sick and need urgent
spiritual deliverance.”
After listening to the testimonies, Chief Ademola Odunade, the court’s
President, ordered all the parties concerned to ensure that they did
the needful since it was a matter of life and death.
Odunade held that Dickson might be charged for a felony.
The arbitrator adjourned the case till October 15 for judgment.