Question posted in the Criminal Law category relating to KwaZulu-Natal
My father sexualy abused me from the age of 11 years old until 18 years old. I will be reporting this to the police sometime soon but I have concerns.
So the reason he stopped the abuse was that I finally got the courage to tell my mom when I was 18. So my mom would be like a key witness in prosecuting him, I'm not sure of the wording but I would definitely need her testimony to have any hope of my father being found guilty.
The problem comes in when I want to also prosecute my mother for her part in making me keep the abuse a secret instead of reporting my father to the police right away. I'm absolutely terrified that if I report my mother along with my father then she will refuse to testify in court and might lie instead and say I never told her about what my father did to me and then he's found not guilty as a result.
There are also other people who I will be bringing to court, including the pastor and his wife who told me to keep it a secret as well. If I report them and my mother is aware of it she might back out of testifying out of fear she also gets in trouble for not reporting my father and then then my father is found not guilty.
So my question is: What should I do in this case?
Like would my future lawyer be able to keep the information of me prosecuting my mother (and the other people I'm prosecuting) from her until after she's testified in court so the case won't be jeopardized by her potentially backing out of testifying or lying? Or what should I do and what is possible?
Thank you so much for your time.