LEGAL WRANGLING: Husband accused of raping his wife

A man who moved out of the matrimonial home in 2014, leaving his wife and two children, is upset about allegations and threats his wife has been making against him.
He explained that he left the house, that he owned before he met her, because his wife was always cursing him.
“I went to live with my mother and left her in the house with our two young children because she was very quarrelsome and became unbearable to live with,” he said.
“In the evenings when I came home from work, she was always accusing me of having affairs with the women who work in my hardware store. I told her it was not true, but she just did not believe and cursed me almost daily.
“One Sunday, when she and the children were at church, I packed my clothes and left to live at my mother’s house. When she came home and saw I had moved out, she went to the neighbours telling them all sorts of lies.
“I visit the home every week and give her money for the children and pay all the bills in the house, although I am not living there. Although I am not living at the house, when I visit she still accuses me of having affairs with the women who work at my hardware store.
“One evening in May this year, I went to the house. The children were sleeping and she was in her bedroom. We began talking about a murder that took place in the community and she was very friendly towards me.
“I was sitting on the bed and I told her I was thinking of moving back home. We ended up making love and I left and went back to my mother’s house.The next day, she telephoned me asking when I was planning to come back home. I told her I needed some more time to make my decision.
“She flew into a rage and began cursing me. She said I had no intention of moving back home and only tricked her because I wanted to be intimate with her. I told her that was never my intention, but she needed to change her ways before I could move back home.
“She goes around telling people in the community that I came to the house and raped her and she was going to have me locked up. She even cursed my mother because she (my mother) went to her and told her to stop telling lies on me.
“Last month I was talking to two of my friends about it. One said I should not worry because I was still her husband so she cannot accuse me of rape,. The other friend said he heard a story where a husband was charged with raping his wife,” he said.

A husband can be charged with raping his wife if the wife did not consent to have sexual intercourse with him. Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act outlines the circumstances under which a husband can be charged with marital rape. The section states, in part, that a husband commits the offence of rape against his wife if he has sexual intercourse with her without her consent in circumstances where they have been separated, there are proceedings for dissolution of marriage, there is a restraining order granted against him for the protection of the wife, or the husband knows that he has a sexually transmitted infection.