Pietermaritzburg High Court reduces life sentence for rapist of minor

The Pietermaritzburg High Court has reduced rape sentences, including life imprisonment, for a man who raped his wife’s step-brother in July 2016.

The man from Melmoth had pleaded not guilty when he was charged by the Inkanyezi Regional Court in February 2017 for two counts of rape.

On February 6, 2018, he was found guilty on both counts, and on September 11, 2018, he was given a 15-year prison sentence for putting his penis in the victim's mouth without his consent. In addition, he received a life sentence for raping the victim and penetrating the anus of the victim.

The incidents took place on July 1 and 2 in 2016, when the victim, who was under the age of 16, had come to visit during school holidays. The first incident took place in the home of the man and the victim’s step-sister, while they were watching a movie around 10pm to 11pm.

In the second incident, the man took the victim to a dam while he told his family that they were going fishing in the evening, around 5.30pm to 6pm.

The victim told the court that he had heard stories of men getting raped especially in prison and he was in shock that it was happening to him. He said that at this moment, he experienced several emotions, and he was horrified.

 He claimed that after they returned and ate, the man dozed off on the dining room couch because he was intoxicated.

The victim said he used this opportunity to pack his clothes and leave, adding that before he left, he wrote a note for his sister that he could not stay with them as he no longer felt safe. 

He said he went to his cousin’s house and told them what had transpired. The victim stated that his sister was called, and eventually he was taken to the hospital and a police station. 

In his defence, the man said he did not know the age of the victim and claimed that he looked older. He further said the victim enjoyed the sexual act.

In its analysis, the High Court said the regional court did not rely on evidence to determine whether there was consent. 

“The court a quo relied extensively on the use of literature in the judgment instead of reference to the evidence,” said Judge Jacqueline Henriques.

Additionally, Judge Henriques looked at the personal circumstances of the man and said that when he was sentenced, he was 56 years old.

The man’s counsel J Wolmarans urged the court to have regard that the victim was two months shy of his 16th birthday at the time of the incidents. 

“Had the encounters taken place two months later, then there would have been no offence to speak of,” Wolmarans said.

He also asked the court to consider that his client had already been imprisoned and served a sentence of about six years and six months. 

Judge Henriques said the man pretended not to know the age of his victim when, at one stage, he and his wife resided with him when he was at preschool, after his father passed away. 

“The appellant knew that the complainant was a vulnerable child with a troubled background and a history of instability,” Judge Henriques added. 

She said the victim had been accommodated in places of safety and various homes for vulnerable and neglected children around Durban. 

“The victim looked up to the appellant as a father figurein his life. However, instead of imparting some knowledge and life lessons on the complainant about manhood, the appellant preyed on the complainant,” she said.

Judge Henriques further said it was a little too late for the man to now apologise to the victim. She sentenced him to five years each for both the rape counts and ordered the sentences to run concurrently. 

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za