51 year old mother has been pleaded guilty to the charge of raping her 18 year old son whom she has been using for at least ten years without her husband noticing.

The boy reported the matter in October after trying to commit suicide.

The woman, whose identity cannot be made public, cried when her husband told the court how he found the boy lying unconscious in his bedroom, having overdosed on sleeping pills.

The teenager had written three letters addressed to his mother, father and sister in which he explained why he chose to take his own life.

When the woman appeared in court, Magistrate Jan Greyvenstein ordered that the contents of the letters should not be read out.

The woman’s husband said she developed feelings for their son and ended up having sexual intercourse with him.

“A mother builds up the family and protects her children. A normal person would think it’s very wrong for a mother to have sex with her own son,” complained the father.

“I have been asking myself why this kind of thing happened in my family,” he said. The distraught father said he was a Christian and pitied his wife.“No one is perfect. My wife showed remorse for her immoral deeds,” he said.

Clinical psychologist Johannes van der Merwe told the court: “This is a unique case. It is not normal for a mother to have sexual feelings for her son.”