Just when you think you?ve seen and heard it all. Last week, Mauritius surpassed its already high standards of social depravity when it was discovered that a ten-year old girl is six months pregnant. Yet this tale of pre-teen pregnancy comes with a sting in its tail. Indeed, she was impregnated by? her very own father.

The sequence of events is disarmingly simple and reads like a manual on how to deconstruct the life of a little girl. Girl has violent stomach pains. Mother takes her to hospital thinking that she has gynaecological problems. The ultrasound scan reveals that she is with child. An enraged mother demands an explanation. Daughter recounts her horror story. The family members? lives start crashing down around them.

<B>Heartbreaking story</B>

The girl?s story is heart-breaking. Her father, aged 30, apparently took advantage of a moment alone with her to accomplish his dirty deed. The nightmare occurred in their one-bedroom home in sugarcane fields.

Pretexting an impending electricity cut, he lured her onto the bed before placing a piece of cloth in her mouth to muffle her screams. He then went through with his dastardly act. He not only had sexual intercourse with his ten-year old daughter, but he also sodomized her as was determined by forensic scientist, Dr Sudesh Gungadin.

Understandably, the young victim is rather confused at the moment. She doesn?t know whether or not she is going to keep the child, this offspring of incest. Her mother is tempted to hand it over to her sister-in-law, who is unable to conceive. She hopes to meet her teacher this week to see whether she can pursue her schooling, at least long enough for her to complete her primary education.

The father claims he is innocent of this heinous crime. He affirms that if he had to abuse someone it would have been his stepdaughter. For her part, the girl?s mother says she never suspected that her husband of ten years would have been capable of such a thing: ?He used to play with the kids but I never saw him do anything inappropriate.? According to her, her husband was strict with their daughters, preventing them from leaving the house alone.