9 where exactly, in the appellant’s van, the sexual intercourse took place. As already stated, in her evidence the complainant stated that sexual intercourse took place at the back of the van. During cross-examination it was put to her that she had told Police Officer Monname that the incident happened on the front seat of the van. The relevant portion of the statement reads as follows: ‘On his arrival as I was standing next to the electricity house I got into the van in front seat and I sat on passenger side and he pulled me next to him and undress my panty and he continue having sex with me without proposed any relationship to me and I do feel that his penis is into my vagina and he never used a condom and I did feel pain of what has happened to me as it was for the first time I have sex with a male person.’ [23] The complainant insisted during cross-examination that she had told the police officer that sexual intercourse happened at the back of the van. English is not Mr Monname’s first language. During cross-examination he testified that the conversation between himself, the complainant and the complainant’s mother was in Setswana. Although he insisted that he read the statement back to the complainant after taking it, the complainant denied that it was ever read back to her. As evident from the quoted portion, the statement did not result from a careful leading or guidance of the complainant to explain the details of the incident. Mr Monname admitted that the statement probably did not contain all the details of the incident. For these reasons its contents cannot bear the same weight in the same light as the complainant’s evidence in court. 3 [24] The complainant was criticized for failing to report the rape when the appellant was not in her presence and she was in the security of her home. But it hardly needs to be said that the effect of the threat which she said the appellant had uttered to her would not have ceased just because she was home. It is a well-established fact that even adult victims of sexual abuse often delay or do not report the rape or sexual assault, either because of threats uttered to them by the perpetrators or for fear of the social stigma, shame and humiliation of having been raped. 4 Naturally these emotions would have been heightened in the case of the complainant who was a 3 S v Mafaladiso en andere 2003 (1) SACR 583 (SCA) at 593a – 594h. Victim Responses to Sexual Assault: Counterintuitive or Simply Adaptive? Patricia L Fanflik; 2007; Special Topics Series; Office of Violence Against Women;: office of Justice Programs; United States Department of Justice 4