Justice served: Pietermaritzburg High Court confirms life sentence for father who raped his daughter

An appeal against the life sentence of a rapist father who had raped his daughter and impregnated her was dismissed by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

The rapist father was sentenced by the Ngwelezana Regional Court on July 30, 2019, for raping his daughter in March to August 2018. The daughter was 14 years old at the time and as a result of the rape, she fell pregnant. She is currently living in an orphanage with her child. 

The appeal was heard at the beginning of this month. 

Furthermore, despite the charge sheet not mentioning it, the father admitted he was the victim's father and entered a guilty plea to the rape charge. He acknowledged in his plea that he had raped his daughter twice.

The victim was raped in March and August of 2018, according to the doctor who evaluated her, who documented this information in a J88 document. The victim informed the physician that she became pregnant in March and that she refused her father's request to have the child aborted.

The victim reasoned that the child's birth would be proof that she was raped by her father. 

Judge Robin Mossop said the argument by the defence that the father did not waste time or money by requiring the State to establish his guilt and admit his guilt held very little attraction to him. 

“The appellant (father) had no choice but to plead guilty because the State would have been able to establish that he was the father of the complainant’s child without any difficulty,” the judge said. 

He added that the father had no defence because he could not have relied on consent, considering that he admitted that he had intercourse with his daughter.

“He was compelled to plead guilty in the circumstances,” he added. 

In appealing the sentence, the father said the regional court had misdirected itself in imposing a sentence of life imprisonment. He further said the magistrate did not consider the prospects of his being rehabilitated when sentencing him. 

Judge Mossop said rape is always serious and that of a child is even more appalling. 

“The seriousness of rape in this matter is compounded, and exacerbated, by the fact that the appellant is the biological father of the complainant,” he said.

The judge said a father’s duty is to protect his daughter and not to prey upon her. He said ordinarily, a daughter’s first hero in life is her father. 

“He is not entitled to view her as an easy means of satisfying his sexual urges,” Judge Mossop added. 

He said the possibility of the rehabilitation of a convicted person is always a factor a court should consider when faced with the difficult task of imposing a sentence.

 However, Judge Mossop said it was difficult to contemplate how a person whose moral compass is so defective that it permits him to sexually exploit his flesh and blood could ever be rehabilitated. 

He said in sentencing the father, the regional magistrate correctly found that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances entitling the court to impose a sentence other than the prescribed minimum sentence.

“There is accordingly no evidence that the regional magistrate misdirected himself in sentencing the appellant (father) as he did. The sentence that he imposed does not raise in me a feeling of disquiet or compel me to the view that it is inappropriate to the offence that the appellant committed,” Judge Mossop said. 

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za