According to reports, Zoey-Lee Smith from Eldorado Park lost an eye when she was violently beaten by her stepfather, Earl Spencer, with a coffee mug.
Zoey’s mother, Samantha Smith, had left to go to the store when she returned, she found her daughter and husband in a brawl.
Smith said her husband was beating her daughter because he allegedly demanded money from her in order to buy drugs.
“My husband took a cup and hit my daughter three times on the head. The first time was behind the ear, the second time was on her head and the third time in the face, and then the cup broke in her face over her eye,” she said.
According to The Star, Zoey-Lee was discharged on Monday and said: “I’m not okay; it’s jarring waking up from an operation without an eye. I want justice and I want him to suffer,” she said, adding that her stepfather had a history of violence and abuse towards her and her mother.
“He abuses my mother and as her eldest daughter, I’m going to take action, because she’s my mother and I can’t just leave things and let him beat her up,” she said.
Gauteng provincial police spokesperson, Captain Kay Makhubele, said that Spencer had appeared in the Kliptown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, on charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH).
Capt Makhubele says, “He was charged with assault for now, because we haven’t received the full details of the abuse, because the victim is still in the hospital. Once we get her statement on what happened, and how it happened, the charge could be changed or added on top of what we have charged (him) with now,”