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Warning: This article contains graphic details that may upset sensitive readers.
I’m sorry but we have to talk about the senseless case of the savage that is Hugo Ferreira, a father who admitted to raping his one-week-old daughter while they were home alone, saying he knew she could die but didn’t care.
The 37-year-old man from Welverdiend, Gauteng, revealed that he raped his child in 2023 because he wanted to “give her something to cry about,” per the Mirror.
The Pretoria High Court heard that the baby’s mother, Maureen Brand, had left the home on June 8, 2023, to run errands when the heinous crime took place. She came back to discover her child suffering from severe injuries.
Brand had stepped out to sell clothes and buy diapers, telling Ferreira she would be back in five minutes, only to return a little delayed to the most horrific scene, with her husband saying he had become enraged as the baby needed a diaper change.
Tragically, the baby girl succumbed to head injuries at the hospital after Ferreira forcefully “pushed her head against” a hard surface. He excused his barbaric behavior by claiming he was “unhappy” being left to care for the child alone.
Ferreira recounted the appalling moment he chose to assault the innocent baby, stating: “I grabbed the baby hard, and in the process, I pushed her head against the surface on which I was working.”
When recounting the incident, he admitted to hiding the child from her mother, News24 reported.
“When her mother returned, I realized she would see that something was wrong,” he confessed. “I kept the baby away from her until later that day. I did this because I realized the baby was seriously injured.”
Apparently, Ferreira acknowledged the seriousness of his actions and the potential fatal outcome for his daughter, saying he knew what he was doing and insisting that his use of methamphetamines did not drive his decisions that day.
He also said that he would kill his ex-wife and the biological mother of the deceased infant if he isn’t jailed, per News24.
The report, compiled by a probation officer for sentencing proceedings, revealed that Ferreira has a long-detailed history of violence, spanning back to when he was a child, including destroying property belonging to his grandparents and assaulting his mother.
Ferreira said he had a bad relationship with his mother, feeling that she abandoned him as a child and had assaulted her when she refused to give him money. A friend said he saw Ferreira dragging his mother on the floor by the hair.
His mother said she would not give him money because he would use it to buy drugs. Ferreira said he had been a habitual drug user since his early teens and abused crystal meth / Tik.
“The accused stated that what he did was out of anger towards Ms Brandt, and he took out his feeling of rejection by his mother, as well as his ex-wife, on the child,” the probation officer’s report states.
“He was very angry towards Ms Brandt as she always visited her ex-boyfriend to fetch money. He stated that what he did was wrong. He expressed the opinion that he should have rather killed himself than to hurt and kill an innocent child.”
Ferreira was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder after the murder.
“He fits the definition of such a person as he disregarded other people’s rights through theft in the past, he is engaging in reckless behaviour by abusing substances, and displays severe aggressive behaviour,” the report stated.
He is supposed to be sentenced in May – let’s hope it’s for multiple lifetimes.
