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A MAN once hailed as a “saviour” for rescuing a young East London woman from her abusive family has been dubbed a monster after being arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting his baby daughter.

The man, who may not be named to protect the identity of the two-year-old child he and the woman he “rescued” seven years ago had together, is facing charges of sexual assault and is out on R1000 bail.

The estranged couple made headlines in 2002 when the man helped her escape from her family, whom she claimed had physically and mentally abused her.

But in an ironic twist, the same family, including her mother, grandmother and the younger brother she laid charges against for allegedly assaulting her with sjamboks and a broomstick when she tried to leave home at the age of 18, are now her refuge.

She and her little girl moved back into the modest Amalinda home after she fled from the lover she allegedly caught red- handed sexually abusing their daughter.

In an interview with Weekend Post this week, the woman described how a “gut feeling” made her sneak up on the father of their baby daughter in March this year, only to find him molesting her.

The woman, 25, who may also not be named to protect the identity of her child, told of the revulsion she felt when she found her boyfriend of eight years sexually violating his own child on two more occasions this year. Now two, she was just 16 months old at the time of the alleged first incident.

The East London mother finally laid charges of rape and sexual assault against the man on July 23 and he was arrested on October 21. He was freed on bail on November 2.

She said the 36-year-old accused had also started beating her shortly after she moved into his Berea garden flat seven years ago.

“At first he made me feel special and we got engaged. He looked after me and cooked for me because I worked long hours ... but then he started beating me and choking me for stupid reasons. He took his anger out on me – even when I was pregnant.”

But nothing prepared her for the explicit child pornography she found on his computer when their daughter was four months old. “We were living in Chintsa at the time and something made me ... check his computer. I found photographs of child pornography. It made me feel sick because he had downloaded pictures of babies aged four to six months old that had been raped.”

The woman said she immediately phoned his mother. “But his mother said he would never harm his daughter and when I confronted him he said the child porn had been sent to him by a friend.”

Ten months later, in March this year, the mother’s worst nightmares came true when she allegedly caught her fiancé abusing their little girl.

“He said he would look after her while I ate my supper, but something made me sneak up on him because it was very quiet. I walked quietly to her bedroom which also had his computer in it. I saw him abusing her. There was child porn on the computer. I grabbed her and screamed: ‘What the f*** are you doing to her? This is your own daughter!’ He said he had to find satisfaction somewhere because I did not satisfy him.”

The woman said she could not leave because she was unemployed and had nowhere to go since he had stopped her seeing her family. She said although she tried to keep her little girl with her at all times after she witnessed the abuse, she had caught her fiancé putting the child’s hand on his exposed private parts days later.

“I grabbed her away again and I took her everywhere with me, but a few days later she ran to him after her bath while I was getting her clothes. When I went into her room, he had put her on his computer chair and was touching her private parts.

“His excuse was that it looked like there was something wrong with them and he was just checking.”

She said she now wanted to make “a fresh start”, to find a job and be independent. “I hope they lock him up and throw away the key. If a man can do this to his own child, surely he will do it to others?

“But my little girl is safe and happy now and my family is getting on. She is my bundle of joy, my life and the reason I carry on.”

A police source close to the investigation said the accused was yet to plead, but had “emphatically denied” the charges.

The man appeared in the Komga Magistrate’s Court yesterday where the case was postponed until January.

PE psychologist Dr Dolf Muller said there was something “very wrong” with a person who sexually abused babies.

“In my experience you are born a paedophile and die a paedophile.”

Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre director Lesley-Ann Foster said the problem of fathers raping their own babies and toddlers was global and “far worse than we think”.

“Although there are no statistics, we know there are a lot of fathers in the Eastern Cape who are raping their babies.

“Babies can’t talk so unless they are caught in the act, no one knows about it.”