I’m having sex with you because I love you, father tells biological daughter

A 39 – year old woman of Lusaka’s Garden house has narrated in the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court how her husband had sexual intercourse with his 19 -year-old biological daughter on their matrimonial bed when she was not around.

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She revealed that the accused told the daughter that he had sexual intercourse with her because he loved her.

In this case, BM, aged 45 a bricklayer pleaded not guilty to two counts of incest and two counts of indecent assault on females contrary to the laws of Zambia.

The accused appeared before magistrate Amy Masoja who read all the charges to him, where he denied committing them.

When called to the witness dock to give her testimony, BB, the wife to the accused for over 23 years and mother to the victim, testified how she discovered that her daughter was being abused by her own father.

BB told the court that among her seven children, the defiled daughter had a disability on the right hand and right leg – she doesn’t walk properly.

This is because she had meningitis, in December 2006 at the age of two months.

“My daughter MM explained to me that  between 2023 and 2024 something happened to her. She told me that her father was doing something. I asked her what he was doing to her. He said the father used to touch her breasts. I asked her if it was only the breasts that he was touching. She kept quiet.”

“I asked her to finish saying what she had started saying last night. She told me that the day I went to a Praise Overnight for Ushers and leaders in 2024, she said she remained and the father had sex with her,” the young lady said.

BB said the act happened in the house, in the main bedroom, the matrimonial bedroom.

“When that happened, all the siblings were around but they were sleeping. It is a four room house with three bedrooms. The girls used to sleep in one room, the boys in another and us in the main bedroom,” she said.

The witness said she asked her daughter if she had told anyone else about what happened but she said no.

“She told me that she informed me so that I tell him to stop what he had been doing.”

“She told me that he warned her not to tell anyone and if she did, he would kill her,” mother narrated.

BB said the victim told her that it happened on two occasions, She said on the second occasion, he had sent the others to buy snacks.

The survivor’s mother further said when the daughter confronted her father that what he was doing with her was bad, the man told her that he was having sex with her because he loved her.

“When it happened, I went to town. That’s where I sell from. My daughter revealed this to me between July and August, 2024.”

“I told my mother in law to travel immediately from the Copperbelt. She told me that she didn’t have transport money. I told her she needed to travel because something had happened,” the survivor’s mother narrated before court.

The witness said even before the mother came, her husband tried to take advantage of her daughter again but he didn’t manage.

“Before my in-laws came, my husband followed my daughter whilst she was in the house so that he could take advantage of her. He did not succeed in having sex with her,” she said.

The young lady said she was sleeping on the chair and felt him touching her breasts and asked if he could repeat what he had done to her again.

But the young lady was frustrated and went outside the house. That’s when she summoned up the courage to go to the police where she reported the matter.

“She told me that she had reported her father to the police… This was the time she told me that it was because I wasn’t doing anything about it. She said the police would come to arrest him,” The witness narrated.

During cross examination, the accused denied the charges questioning why his wife didn’t report to the police after their daughter told her what happened.

Of which the witness said she was waiting for the mother in-law to handle the issue.

When the court asked if the witness had confronted her husband on the issue, she responded in the affirmative.

It is alleged that on a date unknown but between December 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 in Lusaka, the accused had carnal knowledge of MM a female person who to his knowledge was his daughter.

And between the same dates he indecently assaulted her.

The court has since adjourned the matter to April 22, 2025 for continuation of trial.

By Lucy Phiri

Kalemba March 28, 2025