The crime that never was?

Dr Arie Geursen, New Zealand

Mr Gwaze’s, ten-year-old niece and adopted daughter, Charlene Makaza, was found unconscious in her bed, gasping for breath, with a high fever and lying in a pool of diarrhoea. Her 20 year step-sister slept in an adjacent bed no more than a foot apart. Her family rushed Charlene to hospital. There she was initially treated for severe septic shock but by mid-morning, the medical team treating Charlene became convinced that a brutal sexual assault had been perpetrated on her that had caused a 7.5cm tear to her rectum. They speculated that she must have been suffocated in order to keep her quiet for such a “gaping wound” to be inflicted and therefore they called in the Police. Sadly Charlene died about 18 hours after she was admitted.

Mr Gwaze was arrested and accused of the murder and rape of his daughter after his DNA was discovered in her underwear.

He was tried twice; both times New Zealand juries found him not guilty of the charges against him and eventually he was exonerated but at a terrible cost to him and his family.

This paper will describe the extraordinary set of circumstances that led to prosecutors building case for a murder and rape that never happened.

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