'Restaurants creep me out': 7-year-old girl relives rape ordeal in nightmares
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The seven-year-old girl who Nicholas Ninow admitted to raping has nightmares about him every night.
This is according to forensic social worker Karen Botha, who compiled a victim impact assessment report on the girl and her family.
"She [the child] says she still sees the accused when she goes to bed," Botha said.
Ninow admitted raping the child in a female toilet at the Dros restaurant in Silverton, Pretoria, in September 2018. He pleaded guilty to rape, possession of drugs and defeating the ends of justice.
Botha said the child was anxious and nervous when she consulted her early in October, 18 months after the incident.
"The victim was extremely nervous and anxious. She spoke softly. She remembered what happened at Dros and how she got hurt", Botha said.
Convicted Dros rapist Nicholas Ninow was sentenced in the Pretoria high court on October 17 2019. Judge Mokhine Mosopa sentenced Ninow to life in prison for the rape of a seven-year-old child in September 2018.
Botha said the child told her that Ninow had threatened to kill her if she told anyone about what he had done to her.
"He told me if I told anyone, he would kill me. I'm scared of restaurants, they creep me out. Now I know you need to go with someone to the bathroom," the child told Botha.
Botha was told that she had wet her bed a day before she testified in court.
Botha said the child's maternal grandparents told her that the child's grades at school had dropped and that she had become emotional and tended to cry a lot, since the incident happened.
"The family indicated that they want to keep the incident a secret," Botha said.
The child's mother, according to Botha, feels she has failed her daughter and that she feared she would no longer trust her to protect her.
"The mother wants the accused to be handed a life sentence. The victim said he should be in jail to learn his lesson," Botha said, adding that the incident that severely affected the child's wellbeing.
She said the full impact of the rape on the child might become evident in years to come.
Meanwhile, Ninow's grandmother Pauline Gericke earlier told the court that Ninow was an impulsive person and had anger issues. She said she was once called at his school because he had gotten into a fight with other children. "He displayed anger towards himself at home."
She described her grandson as a "bubbly" person who would "go out and do it".
Gericke also pleaded with the public to not judge Ninow's mother, who introduced him to drugs. "My daughter is clean (now). I ask that you don't judge her too harshly. She lives with the guilt ... "
Judge Papi Mosopa will begin handing down sentence on Thursday afternoon.