A FORBIDDEN fruit loving man (45) was caught having sex with his 16-year-old niece-cum-girlfriend.

It was none other than his wife who caught the two lovers in the act and out of panic, the niece claimed to have been raped.

Before the wife could report the matter to the police, the husband pleaded for mercy and was given a reprieve.

However, a few days later the wife caught them in the same bedroom doing the same thing.

Was it a second rape?

The only way to find out was the wife reporting the matter to the police for investigation, which she did.

A source close to the matter alleged that it was then discovered the two were lovers.

“Upon investigations it was discovered that the pair were in love and the niece admitted to the investigators that they were in love,” said the source.

The only criminal charge that could stick was incest and the two have since appeared before Kezi magistrate Arafat Kozanayi.

In court the teenager told the magistrate that she initially screamed rape because had the affair been exposed it would have tarnished her image.

“I felt the incident was going to tarnish my reputation in the community and my peers were going to poke fun at me. And also I feared my aunt would chuck me out of her homestead,”she said.

The uncle apologised for his abominable act.

The pair will be sentenced on 24 April.