For making his granddaughter a sex slave for more than a decade, a 58-year-old Talisay resident was sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or 40 years of imprisonment, after Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Fernando Elumba, found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of rape.

Court records show that the victim, whose identity is being withheld, had been molested by her grandfather, at their house in Hacienda Paz Manaloto, Brgy. Matab-ang, Talisay City, Negros Occidental when she was seven years old in 1994, and that he continued to do it until she reached the age of 18 in 2005.

The convicted grandfather, whose identity is also being withheld, even threatened her with a hand gun, the last time she was molested on Aug. 14, 2005, court records showed.

However, the grandfather vehemently denied her claims and said he had taken care of her and her younger sister, since the age of three years old, when they were abandoned by their parents.

Her grandmother, who was also presented as a witness for her grandfather in court, testified that no such incident of rape took place on Aug. 14, 2005, court records also showed.

The victim-complainant told the court that she was molested by her grandfather, every time he was drunk.

Talisay City Health Officer Dr. Raul Fama also bolstered the allegations of the victim, and confirmed that she had been raped, based on his medical findings.

Elumba, in his eight-page decision, said he noted that the victim became emotional during her direct and cross examinations in court.

Unlike the accused whose defense is purely denial, Elumba said the complainant’s testimony was straightforward, credible and convincing. “ The testimony of a rape victim as to who had abused her is credible where she has no motive to falsely testify against the accused”, he added.

Elumba also said “It is highly improbable for young innocent barrio lass to concoct a tale of defloration, allow the examination of her most private parts, subject herself to a public and suffer the humiliation of publicly recounting the violation of her womanhood, unless she is motivated solely a desire to seek justice for a wrong commiitted against her”.

The evidence offered against the accused has proved to the point of moral certainty, sexual perversion against the complainant since the latter was seven years old, and that same was continuously done until the complainant became a grown up lady, the judge stressed. * GPB

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